
JOSEPHINE, EMPRESS OF FRANCE. 



1 



> 







MURAT HALSTEAD, THE AUTHOR. 



The World on Fire 



INCLUDING 



Splendors and Horrors of the Volcanic Eruptions of the Lesser Antilles, 
together with a Biographical Sketch of Josephine, Kmpress of the 
French, the Fair Daughter of Martinique, and Alexander Hamilton, 
Stalwart Son of Island of Nevis, and Father of the American 
Constitution. 



By MURAT HALSTEAD 



Author of "The Story of the Philippines," "Pictorial History of America's New 
Possessions," "Official History of the War with Spain," "Life and Achieve- 
ments of Admiral Dewey," "Life and Reign of Queen Victoria," 
"Galveston: Horrors of a Stricken City," "Life of 
Wm. McKinley," " Story of Cuba," "Our 
Country in War," etc., etc. 



THE DESTROYING VOLCANOES OF OLD AND THE 

NEW CLASSED. 



A STRANGE AND AWFUL HISTORY. 



SPLENDIDLY ILLUSTRATED WITH MANY VIEWS 
IN HALF TONES. 



INTERNATIONAL PUBLISHING SOCIETY, 
Publishers. 



/ 



the library of 
congress, 

Two Copies Received 

JON. 23 1902 

Copyright entry 

CLASS ^^XXc. No. 

COPY 8. 



CopyRiGHT, 1902, by H. I,. Barber. 



A 



/ 







PROLOGUE 



The experience of our race teaches that we live in a wonderful, beau- 
tiful, beneficent and terrible world. It is a rolling splendor, and so far 
as our kind are competent to comprehend it, an eternal mystery. Ages 
on ages have unfolded the books of nature and the glories of God, but 
riding upon our stately home through the universe, and measuring our 
flight by far off -brilliants, that we find for our purposes "fixed stars" 
and confidently call them so, we perceive they are steadfast only in their 
relations to us, for the processions of which we behold the pageantry 
pursue sightless oaths beyond the spheres of the marvels that are mas- 
terful, in our guidance. When we study the systems for which thou- 
sands of years are as a vapor, that goes as light comes, and are con- 
vinced that our majestical planet is an atom, stupendous as it has been 
revealed to us; and the all-conquering and compelling sun a moon fol- 
lowing the wheeling of other vaster suns; and these having infinitely 
greater suns to lead them. 

This earth of ours has been called "the great globe we inherit." We 
have been assured eye-witnesses that we dwell upon an orb that is as 
a bubble on a flood that streams through the unknown, giving and re- 
ceiving light, and subject to magnetic influences, all-abounding and 
controlling. The profoundest students are persuaded, as they strive for 
knowledge, that their lives illustrate the fabulous truth that the philoso- 
pher announced when he said at the end of his labors of discovery, he 
had only picked up a few pebbles on the shore of an illimitable sea of 
knowledge. 

Our portion of the revelation of the spectacular dwelling places of 

our people tells at first that we may not boast independence, for the sov- 

7 



**- 



8 PROLOGUE 

ereign sun is clearly our master, the fountain of living light, of the heat 
that is creative force, and that we may well believe is subordinate to 
greater powers. Our tremendous earth, of which we are so profoundly 
conscious, with its wealth of continents and oceans, is of a group of 
glorious worlds, and these greater and smaller than our inheritance, 
while the steady blazing suns have their families of planets, and the 
planets satellites, some with many moons, while we, spinning in the 
midst, bear with us a lifeless and lonesome moon, as we know life and 
comprehend companionship.- As we are able to group the issues of life 
and death, the moon is a dead child of the luminous system, a thing of 
beauty, not a joy forever, but pale and cold, contrasted with the pn> 
digious flaming furnaces of the suns, attracting exhaustless streams of 
fuel from the regions the comets visit and convey to the consuming 
stars resources of vitality. Between the sun and moon, we seem to par- 
take of the nature of both. We are not quick as the sun, or dead as the 
moon. We are of the stars that are glowing factors and differ in glory. 
The sun is fire for the day. The moon is a lamp to> make the shadows of 
night fainter, and soften dazzling fires. The grandeur of the earth is 
manifest. It is our house and home made with infinite hands. Our 
race has but touched the surface of its store of energy, and had visions 
of its bounty. It has an atmosphere of storms, and a bosom of flame; 
but the land and the waters abound with our food. The inner fires of 
the sun are radiated, and we follow the splendid leader, as the fair phan- 
tom moon follows us. Near as our pallid attendant is to> us, we are not 
sure whether she is quite calm, but we believe she is cold, and hardly 
know why she haunts us, but sure we could not spare her gentle rule of 
the night, misty with stars. The sun is a flame. His fires are visible, 
tor they are the light, and we feel them, for they are of the principle of 
life. Our earth partakes of the character of sun and moon. Perhaps 
we once had a work of preparation to accomplish before we could take 
our spin with the other worlds, and that it was fitted up for man by 
evolutions, for which in the eternity of the past there was ample time for 



PROLOGUE 9 

soil to accumulate, and food grains and fruit trees to grow, bloom in the 
spring and ripen in the summer. 

The mountains that burn and the storms that rend are signs of the 
life of our planet. The procession of the seasons turn the tides, accord- 
ing to the constellations that are the universal clocks. The earthquake 
is a process of progress, science says, and it is written over the face of 
the earth that there has been shifting of seas and changes of climates, 
that continents and oceans have shifted places, and the shaking of the 
ground and the bursting of fires from the deeper deeps, preparing re- 
sources for the generations that are to gather the harvests of the Here- 
after, richer than golden. The volcanic conditions are not confined to 
certain lands, but common to all engaged in the wonders yet to be 
wrought. As the ages go, the fashioning of instruments of investigation 
of the hitherto unsearchable secrets of the earth permit deeper explora- 
tions, and now the earth is to be proved as the air is to be navigated, and 
the secrets of the fires that boil the waters under the earth added to our 
education. 

The Atlantic Ocean in the tropics is separated frDm the greater 
islands of the American Mediterranean — the Caribbean Sea and the 
Gulf of Mexico' — by a chain of smaller groups, of almost incomparable 
beauty, belonging to Denmark, France and England. They are lofty in 
their loveliness, like Hayti, and among their attractions have been 
rugged peaks blackened with ancient fires, whose reputation has been 
less formidable in the stirring latter years than formerly. Like Vesuvius 
they have, after long rests, suddenly burst forth with tremendous thun- 
derings, and exploded as if infinite stores of dynamite had been ignited. 
Floods of scalding mud, rivers of lava, rains of ashes darkening land 
and sea, hail storms of fiery rocks instead of pellets of ice, clouds of 
swooping flame, cyclones of deadly gases, have annihilated cities and 
killed of people unnumbered thousands. Here is the most frightful and 
startling event in the records of the earth. 

Two mountains especially have contributed this amazing disaster, 



10 PROLOGUE 

that adds grandeur of sorrow to teachings of wisdom, and it has not a 
little affected the confidence of the nations in the immortality, under 
obvious conditions, of the great globe itself. 

The marvelous energies of Krakatoa, whose thunders were heard 
across Indian Ocean, and twenty-five hundred miles away, while the 
lurid vapor discharged reddened the skies for months, as the. mighty 
waters rolled, have been surpassed in the islands of the Caribs. 

Volcanoes are steam holes. The power exerted in eruptions is steam 
power, unless there is some monstrous magnetism that cannot be meas- 
ured or named. The tops of live mountains have been blown away with 
astounding desolation. It does not seem impossible that if the dreadful 
peaks of Martinique and St. Vincent had been set off at once, their 
united potentiality might have rent the crust of the earth over the abyss 
of inconceivable heat, of which both serve as valves of escaping gases 
from the bottomless pits, and turned the ocean into the inconceivable 
burning core of the earth, sent our world flying with the other broken 
worlds, all our beauty at an end, so far as the conditions go that sustain 
human life, and find hope in other stars. Do we totter upon the verge 
of possible problems that involve the earth as a habitation of man ? Sci- 
ence had just pronounced the muttering mountain, that was the back- 
ground of the pleasant City of St. Pierre, safe, and the scientists, having 
at hand means of flight, escaped with their lives, and our war ships sent 
on errands of charity fled before the lightnings and thunders of Mont 
Pelee, whose rain of fire and brimstone, glowing rocks and scalding 
waters, and blazing clouds were made an intolerable assault on land and 
sea, all swallowed in a whirlpool of scorching and blasting chariots of 
clouds afire. Murat Halstead. 



CONTENTS 



PAGE 

Prologue . 7" 10 

List of Illustrations 16-18 

CHAPTER I. 
INTRODUCTORY. 

A General Survey of the Subjects Treated — The Volcanoes That Are Famous and 
the Eruptions That Are Historical — Sidelights That Are of Interest in the 
General Illumination 19-25 

CHAPTER II. 

THE TRAGEDY OF ST. PIERRE. 

Detail of the Sudden Stroke of the Black Cloud Charged With Deadly Gas and 
Devouring Fire — The Sudden Death of a Great Multitude — The Woeful Tales 
of the Suffering, Near Unto Death, of Survivors — The Good Service of 
Soldiers 26-46 

CHAPTER III. 

DESTRUCTION BY PELEE'S RAIN OF FIRE. 

Comparative Figures of Other Great Disasters — Supposition of a Scientist — The 
Facts About the Disaster in Martinique as Gleaned from Later and Corrobo- 
rated Reports 47-65 

CHAPTER IV. 

AN AWFUL OUTBREAK OF PELEE. 

The Top of the Mountain Blown Off — A Rain of Scalding Mud — Flood of Lava 
and Cyclone of Fire — On Horror's Head Honors Accumulate 66-81 

CHAPTER V. 

FRIGHTFUL PRANKS OF MONT PELEE. 

Inhabitants of St. Pierre Warned by Minor Eruptions Several Days Before the 
Destruction of the Town — Evidence in Letters Written Before the Eruption — 

A Series of Eruptions Followed the Great Upheaval .82-88 

11 



12 CONTENTS 



CHAPTER VI. 
THE NAME OF THE TERRIBLE MOUNTAIN. 

PAGE 

Detail of the Horrors of the Ruined City — Fatal Conservatism of the Governor of 
Martinique — Report of the Adventurous Scientific Exploration of Mont Pelee, 
and the Daring Journey to the Crater of George Kennan, the Historian and 
Correspondent < 89-105 

v CHAPTER VII. 

WORLD-WIDE CHARITIES. 

The United States Led the Way in Official Action — Public Subscription and 
the Dispatch of Relief Ships — President Roosevelt Was First and Emperor 
William a Good Second 106-116 

CHAPTER VIII. 

COINCIDENCES AND CONTRASTS. 

Between the Caribbean Sea Islands and the Mississippi Valley Earthquakes and 
Agitations — The Greater of All the Quakes of the Earth — The Marvels of 
the New Madrid 119-128 

CHAPTER IX. 

SCIENCE TO THE FRONT. 

Extraordinary Interest Taken in the Caribbean Catastrophe — Chicago University 
in the First Place — Science to Solve the Seismic Mystery 129-153 

CHAPTER X. 

THE LAST DAYS OF ST. PIERRE. 

The Fiction of a Great Novelist Relating to the Last Days of Pompeii, Over- 
whelmed by Vesuvius, Becomes History Applied to Mont Pelee's Destruc- 
tion of St. Pierre . 154-167 

CHAPTER XI. 

A DAY ON SOUFRIERE. 

A Look Into the Crater of the Soufriere — The Invisible Song-Bird and Beauties of 
the Tropics — The Haunting Iron Lance Blacksnake 168-176 

CHAPTER XII. 

THE THEORY OF VOLCANOES. 

Dr. Samuel Kneeland, Richard A. Proctor, John Milne, Walter T. Brigham 
and Others on the Science of Volcanoes — Causes Given and Results 
Described 177-212 



CONTENTS 13 

CHAPTER XIII. 
MARTINIQUE IN ITS BEAUTY. 

PAGE 

Gay and Brilliant Under the Gloomy Mountain — Pen Pictures of the Scenery — 
The Story of the Empress Josephine — The Terrors of the Fer de Lance, More 
Deadly Than the Cobra — An Earthquake Scare 213-229 

CHAPTER XIV. 

THE ANCIENT HISTORY OF THE CARIBS AND THEIR ISLANDS. 

How the Latter Are Associated With the Wars That Lasted Two Centuries Be- 
tween the English, French and Spaniards — Their Association with Columbus — 
A Theory That in the Pearl Islands the Word "Americapan" Was in Us?, 
and That From It Was Evolved the Name of the New World, America. . . .230-238 

CHAPTER XV. 

THE ISLE OF NEVIS. 

One of the String of the Caribbee Pearls — Alexander Hamilton's Birthplace, 
and Scene of the Episode of Marriage in Lord Nelson's Life — The Story of 
Nelson's Career as a Lover in the West Indies 239-250 

CHAPTER XVI. 

DESTINY DECIDED OFF THE CARIBBEES. 

The English Revenge for Yorktown — Admiral Grasse Left Fort de France as the 
Hurricane Season Was Coming On, and Effectively Co-operated with Wash- 
ington and Rochambeau to Capture Cornwallis — The Fleets of the English and 
French Were in Full Force in Carib Waters the Next Spring, and in the Great 
Battle Grasse W T as Beaten and Captured for the Luck of Fortune Was Against 
Him 251-261 

CHAPTER XVII. 

JOSEPHINE IN HER YOUTH. 

Child of the Sun of the Tropics in the Indies of America — Born Beautiful 
Under Western Palms, Transplanted to Grace Paris, and Lead Napoleon 
Captive 262-274 

CHAPTER XVIII. 

CREOLE AND CORSICAN. 

Of Caribbean and Mediterranean Isles — Empress and Emperor Over All the 

Glories of France 275-284 



/ 



14 CONTENTS 

CHAPTER XIX. 
THE JOSEPHINE LETTERS OF NAPOLEON. 

PAGE 

He Was a Torrid and She a Temperate Correspondent — She Wrote Love Letters 
to Her Mother and Children — Her Seniority — Napoleon's Laws Unto Her- 
self 285-296 

CHAPTER XX. 

EARTHQUAKES OF 1832. 

Disturbances in New England and the St. Lawrence Valley — Manifestations in 
Other Parts of the United States — Tremors in Antioch — Unruly Activity of 
Vesuvius — A Cloud of Witnesses 297-309 

CHAPTER XXI. 

THE BIBLE AND VOLCANOES. 

Holy Writ and Burning Mountains — Passages Prefiguring the End of the World 
by Fire — Tremendous Foreshadowing of Revelations — The Destruction of 
Sodom and Gomorrah 310-315 

CHAPTER XXII. 

QUAKES IN THE MEDITERRANEAN. 

Numerous Peaks in the Form of Islands That Have Quaked in Imitation of the 
Giant Vesuvius — Shocks That Were Destructive, and Others That Had in 
Them the Flavor of Danger 316-323 

CHAPTER XXIII. 

THE PRECEDENT OF VESUVIUS. 

Eruptions Before A. D. 79 — The Mountain Transformed by the "Pliny Eruption" — 
The Resurrection of Pompeii and Herculaneum After Seventeen Centuries — 
Macaulay and Byron's Poetry — Pliny, the Younger's, Special Correspond- 
ence 324-335 

CHAPTER XXIV. 

THE PHENOMENA OF VESUVIUS. 

The Most Famous of Fiery Mountains — Remarkable in Its Eruptions — Memorably 
Historic in Its Surroundings — The Story of This Mountain as Related by the 
Most Daring, Studious, Intelligent and Constant of Its Observers 336-370 



CONTENTS 15 

CHAPTER XXV. 
THE CARIBBEES AND THE ISTHMIAN CANALS. 

PAGE 

Still the Road Around the World Is That Which Columbus Sought — The Trade 
Winds Carried Him on Broad Tropical Lines of Circumnavigation — There 
Are No More Continents to Find, But There Is An Isthmus to Cut to Find 
the Broad Way, and the Caribbees Guard the Gate of the Central Seas 371-382 

CHAPTER XXVI. 

THE DARIEN ISTHMIAN CANAL HISTORY. 

The Material Question Not the Route, But the Achievement — Supreme Advantages 
It Would Give the United States — It Would Unite the Oceans — Salient Points 
of a Historical Discussion — The Time to Act Is "Now 383-3S6 

CHAPTER XXVII. 

THE ISTHMIAN CANAL QUESTION. 

The Competition Between the Panama and Nicaragua Routes — Their Comparative 
Length and Situation — The Splendid Story of the Suez Canal — All the Nations 
of the Earth Want the American Isthmian Canal 387-406 

CHAPTER XXVIII. 

WORLD'S WONDER WORK. 

Steel Roads to Bind All the Continents — Steamers Belt Around the Earth in the 
Tropics, Through Two Isthmian Canals and Mediterranean Seas — Isles of the 
Caribs' Relation to Canals — The Path of Commercial Progress That of the 
Trade Winds Following the War Flags 407-419 

CHAPTER XXIX. 

VOLCANOES OF THE WORLD. 

The Lines of Fire Loopholes That Belt the Globe — Observations by Leading Scien- 
tists — Chemical Action in Volcanic Eruptions — An Interesting Story Written 
in Science 420-450 



/ 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 



1. Josephine, Empress of France. 

2. Murat Halstead, the Author. 

3. Statue of Empress Josephine in Fort de France. 

4. Statue of Empress Josephine, Another View. 

5. Birthplace of Empress Josephine, in Martinique. 

6. Sugar House in Martinique — Early Home of Josephine. 

7. Napoleon Crowning Josephine Empress of France. 

8. Mont Pelee in Eruption. 

9. St. Pierre Overwhelmed by Mont Pelee's Eruption. 

10. Eruption of Mont Pelee. 

11. St. Pierre Seen from the Harbor. 

12. Signal Tower at St. Pierre. 

13. The River at St. Pierre before the Eruption. 

14. An Old Stairway in St. Pierre. 

15. Street Scene in St. Pierre. 

16. Map of the Windward Islands. 

17. View of St. Pierre before the Eruption. 

18. St. Pierre Seen from the Roadstead. 

19. Street Car in St. Pierre. 

20. Handling Tobacco in St. Pierre. 

21. View of City Hall, St. Pierre. 

22. Victor Hugo Street, St. Pierre. 

23. St. Pierre Seen from the Harbor. 

24. The Market in St. Pierre. 

25. The Theatre in St. Pierre. 

26. Street Scene in St. Pierre. 

27. A Road in the Suburbs of St. Pierre. 

28. A French Creole of St. Pierre. 

29. A Martinique Belle. 

30. Mont Pelee, May 12, 1902. 

31. Ruins of St. Pierre Along the Shore. 

32. Ruins of St. Pierre as Seen from the Sea. 

33. Wrecked Cathedral of St. Pierre. 

16 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS IT 



34. Refugees from St. Pierre. 

35. American Marines in St. Pierre, after Eruption. 

36. Bodies of Mother and Child Found after Eruption. 
2,7. Skull Found in St. Pierre after the Eruption. 

38. Louis H. Ayme, U. S. Consul at Guadeloupe. 

39. Native Divers in St. Pierre's Harbor. 

40. Ruins of Pompeii. 

41. City of Naples, Italy. 

42. The Volcano Vesuvius in Italy. 

43. Waianae Coffee Nursery in Hawaiian Islands. 

44. Famous Walk in Royal Palms, Honolulu. 

45. Nuuanu Valley Pass and Pali Peak, near Honolulu. 

46. Travelers' Tree, Hawaii. 

47. Banana Plant, Hawaii. 

48. Entrance to Queen's Hospital, Honolulu. 

49. Flume for Conveying Water in Hawaii. 

50. Lava Formation at Kilauea Crater, Hawaii. 

51. Pineapple Ranch in Hawaii. 

52. Flume Used to Convey Water to Hawaiian Sugar Mills. 

53. Surf Boat Used by Hawaiians. 

54. Panama Canal, 14 Miles from Atlantic. 

55. Panama Canal, Cut at San Pablo. 

56. Panama Canal, Culebra Cut. 

57. Panama Canal, 32 Miles from Atlantic. 

58. La Boca Pier at Beginning of Panama Canal. 

59. Panama Canal, Great Culebra Cut. 

60. Panama Canal, Pier at La Boca. 

61. Panama Canal, 32 Miles from Atlantic. 

62. Panama Canal, Culebra Cut. 

63. Panama Canal, 3 Miles from the Atlantic. 

64. Panama Canal, 9 Miles from the Atlantic. 

65. Panama Canal, End of the Culebra Cut. 

66. Panama Canal, 27 Miles from the Atlantic. 

67. Panama Canal, 33 Miles from the Atlantic. 

68. Panama Canal, 34 Miles from the Atlantic. 

69. Theatre at San Jose, Costa Rica. 

70. School House in San Jose, Costa Rica. 

71. View on San Juan River, Costa Rica. 

72. Pier at Greytown, Nicaragua. 

73. Banana Train in Costa Rica. 



y 



18 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 

74. Birdseye View of Lake Managua, Nicaragua. 

75. Landing at Lake Managua, Nicaragua. 

j6. Coffee-Curing Establishment at San Jose, Costa Rica. 

yy. Native House in Masaya, Nicaragua. 

78. Barber Shop in Masaya, Nicaragua. » 

79. Coffee-Curing Establishment of San Jose, Costa Rica. 

80. Banana Depot Near Blue Fields, Nicaragua. 

81. Monument at San Jose, Costa Rica. 

82. Steamship Passing Through Suez Canal. 

83. Harbor at Port Said. Entrance to Suez Canal. 

84. Views Along the Suez Canal. 

85. Map of Natural Waterways of the Globe. 



The World on Fire 



CHAPTER I. 

INTRODUCTORY. 

A General Survey of the Subjects Treated — The Volcanoes 
That Are Famous and the Eruptions That Are Historical 
— Sidelights That Are of Interest in the General Illumi- 
nation. 

In the prehistoric ages there may have been earthquakes and erup- 
tions of volcanoes greater than we have in the records. Geology tells 
that there were periods when evolutions of the earth as it was were more 
revolutionary than in the times that are shadowed forth in the tradi- 
tions. The deeper students of old times tell us that there are beds of 
lava very far down in the stratification, just as the more recent founda- 
tions of the city bear marks of a great fire, of which witnesses still live 
and are engaged in good works. The portion of the earth that bears 
the slightest traces in history of internal forces, fires and tremors, is the 
continent of Africa, but it does not prove that the bursting forth of fiery 
mountains and the subsoiling of the substance of the earth, when its 
crust is fractured by fissures formed by internal forces, are unknown 
in the dark continent. 

Perhaps the fundamental fact in earthquakes is that they require a 
combination of fire and water. The greater quakes have been located 
on islands and peninsulas. The cities by the seas are those that have 
suffered most from the paroxysms of the earth. The remarkable case 
of Lisbon comes first in magnitude of disasters. We have a recent 
example in our own country, in the city of Charleston. Iceland is en- 

19 



20 INTRODUCTORY 

tirely volcanic, and the eruption of the Scapta is quoted as that in 
which there was more matter exploded to the earth's surface than in 
any other case of volcanic eruption. Mount Hecla has a record care- 
fully kept of the eruptions of a thousand years, during which it has 
been in tremendous agitation more than a hundred times. Hecla at 
peace is a beautiful mass of whiteness, formed like a hen's egg, lying 
on its side, and seen at a distance a few precipices look like pencilmarks 
on the snow. The eruptions of Hecla have been extremely unfortunate 
for and fatal to the Icelandic people because they live largely on milk 
and fish, and the deadly volcano's immense clouds are of dust that blights 
the grass and poisons cattle, while the fish are destroyed in some of the 
rivers by streams of lava very alarming, and are frightened from the 
shaky shores. 

The capital village of Iceland is Reykjavik — the "Smoking Bay." 
There is a cape that is the "Smoking Nose," and throughout the island 
there are hot springs, the greater of which are the famous geysers; 
these, doubtless, the evidence of volcanic action, suppressed for a time, 
perhaps restrained by the activities of Hecla, whose stupendous beauties 
are in full view from the geyser grounds across a broad and desolate 
but grassy valley. There is not in that silent, somber vale, a tree, or 
house, or sign of life, except in the flight of flocks of ravens. The sands 
of the seashores are black. 

The great volcano of the world that seems to go on from everlasting 
to everlasting is in the Sandwich Islands, where a lofty and vast crater 
boils and rages forever, and such floods of lava are discharged from time 
to time that they force their way through forests that they consume, 
melting hills by the way, until they are quenched in the sea, wherein 
they have often tumbled in cataracts of fire, sending clouds of steam to 
the skies. 

It is worthy of remark that the deepest water known, by measure- 
ment, in an ocean, is in the Pacific, some leagues east of the Hawaiian 
group. The greater volcanic eruptions, taking into account the area of 




STATUE OF JOSEPHINE, Empress of France, in tbe Public Square in Fort de France, Martinique 
Erected by tbe People of tbe Island of Martinique. 



INTRODUCTORY 23 

land shaken, are those of the Lisbon earthquake, that of New Madrid, 
and Krakatoa. The seas are accustomed to be close at hand to furnish 
the water, to come in contact with the fire and raise the steam power 
that makes the world tremble. The Mississippi river was, however, 
equal to the water supply in 1812. The recollection of the New Madrid 
"quakes," that was handed down from the contemporary generation, re- 
lated very often to the stoppage of the tall seven day clocks, that were 
apparently indispensable time-keepers, and the rattling of the rifles in 
the buckhorn racks, fixed to the wooden walls; also the extreme fright 
of horses and cattle. The sheep and hogs, the saying was, had not sense 
enough to be scared at anything they did not see. 

The extraordinary energy and destructiveness of the volcanic erup- 
tions in the Caribbean Islands have drawn to them the attention of the 
world in a degree never before experienced, and there is a historical 
surprise in the revelation of the number of personages of world-wide 
reputation and uncommon importance, and of events originating in that 
quarter that have had influence of fame in all parts of the world, and 
shaped events with the magic of tropical tempers, combined with tht 
tenacity of the blood of the zone that is the north temperate, and out- 
lasts in effective strength the people of torrid lands. 

First we find Christopher Columbus, fascinated by the beauty of the 
islands, profoundly interested in their people, at a loss for language 
to express his admiration ; and in one of the names that became familiar 
during his voyages, he was robbed of the honor so hardly won of giving 
his own name to his own discoveries, striking out Columbus and insert- 
ing American. The early European navigators and adventurers thought 
they found a paradise in each of the islands, and dreamed of marvelous 
wealth to be gathered, likened the Lesser Antilles to a string of pearls, 
and discovered on the Atlantic frontier, as it were, of the West Indies, 
the warlike Caribs, fierce fighters, and of a manlier and more strenuous 
type than the people of the Greater Antilles, who were a softer race, 
readily enslaved, and in their weakness speedily perished under the hard- 



24 INTRODUCTORY 

ships imposed upon them. The Caribs were maneaters, and made a 
very stout and ferocious fight. They were wonderfully expert water- 
men, going about over seas exceptionally stormy, in canoes, and exceed- 
ingly skilled as voyagers. 

It is one of the stated incidents of the recent desolation of the 
island of St. Vincent that the last of the Caribs perished in the lava 
streams, so that there is an end of all the races that Columbus found in 
the splendid archipelago that he dreamed were the Indies, of whom the 
Spaniards and Italians had heard in the Asiatic waters where the East 
and West were lost. With the exception of the Caribs, the original 
inhabitants of the West Indies were like a race of children, gentle and 
kindly, living upon the fruits that grew in the forests, and the fish that 
glittered in the rivers and along the seashores. Their houses were of 
the leaves of the palm. There were orange and cocoanut trees, so that 
refreshments were forever abundant, and the soil was rich. There was 
opulence of food in half a dozen varieties of sweet potatoes. The 
people were attractive, but were swept away utterly, and the demand for 
the labor that they could not supply was the African slave trade. 

In presenting the surroundings of the volcanoes that recently have 
wrought such frightful destruction, we find in the Lesser Antilles the 
birthplace of the Empress Josephine of France, the wife of Napoleon, 
and the history of her youth in her native island of Martinique was a 
romance, before she saw her future Empire. There is no more interest- 
ing story in fiction than the history of Josephine, and the splendor of 
her elevation as the wife of Napoleon, crowned with his own hand as 
Empress of France, has caused neglect, almost forgetfulness, of her 
attractive childhood in the island now so awfully stricken and desolate. 

Horatio, Lord Nelson, the greatest of the British Admirals, was 
married on the Isle of Nevis, which has also the distinction of being 
the birthplace of Alexander Hamilton, one of the men of genius in the 
American revolution, one whose influential public life will be memorable 
through all time, and who before leaving his native island had indi- 



INTRODUCTORY 26 

cated the astonishing precocity of his genius by writing a story of a 
hurricane that devastated his birthplace, while Nelson's glory outshines 
all the other heroes of the wars on the seas. 

It was in the midst of these islands that the great naval battle was 
fought between the English Admiral Rodney and the French Admiral 
Grasse, a combat that decided the question of the mastery of the seas 
by the British as against the French. The forces of the combatants 
were nearly equal, and the run of luck was with the British. 

Lord Nelson was in love several times in the West Indies, before he 
met the fascinating widow who was one of his fates. He and Rodney, 
who stands next as the great Admiral most potent for England, were in 
a constant contention while in the Indies, with their home governments 
and distinguished subordinate officers. They were of high warlike spirit, 
but Nelson had the happy fortune of being personally companionable. 

The story of Nelson's marriage has seldom been fully related, as 
given in the history of the Lesser Antilles, and the light on his future 
career, as a genius for sea fights and undisciplined in domestic affairs, 
is clear and convincing. He respected his wife, but he loved Lady 
Hamilton, and made eagerly boundless sacrifices for her sake. The only 
relationship between Alexander Hamilton and Lord Nelson was that the 
former was born and the latter married on the little isle Nevis, one of 
the lesser pearls of the Lesser Antilles. » 

The story of Josephine in Martinique is a true fairy tale. In the 
light of burning mountains of the Caribbees, the figures that loom in 
the history of "the Pearls'' are a group in which the world is vividly 
interested. 



CHAPTER 11, 

THE TRAGEDY OF ST. PIERRE. 

Detail of the Sudden Stroke of the Black Cloud Charged with 
Deadly Gas and Devouring Fire- — The Sudden Death of a 
Great Multitude — The Woeful Tales of the Suffering, 
Near unto Death, of Survivors — The Good Service of Sol- 
diers. 

The inhabitants of St. Pierre had been accustomed to count among 
the chances of their lives, witnessing an actual volcanic eruption. Such 
a calamity was dreaded, but there was felt to be something in the nature 
of compensation, if there must be a stupendous show, in making the 
most of the spectacular effects of the occasion. Clara King was the 
nurse of the Stokes children on the fated British steamer, the Roraima, 
and was in her stateroom, the vessel at rest in the harbor, when the stew- 
ard called to her, "Look at Mont Pelee." She hastened to the deck, 
and saw a vast black cloud coming down from the volcano. The steward 
ordered her to return to the saloon, saying, "It is coming." 

Miss King then ran to the saloon. She says she experienced a feel- 
ing of suffocation, which was followed by intense heat. 

The after part of the Roraima broke out in flames. "Ben" Benson, 
the carpenter of the Roraima, who is now in hospital here severely 
burned, assisted Miss King and Margaret Stokes to escape. 

With the help of Mr. Scott, the first mate of the Roraima, he con- 
structed a raft with life-preservers. Upon this Miss King and little 
Margaret were placed. 

While the raft was being constructed Margaret's little brother died. 
Mate Scott took water to the child at great personal danger, but it was 
unavailing. Shortly after the death of the little boy Mrs. Stokes suc- 
cumbed. 

26 



THE TRAGEDY OF ST. PIERRE 29 

Margaret and Miss King eventually got away on the raft and were 
picked up by the steamer Korona. Mate Scott also escaped. 

Miss King did not sustain serious injuries. She covered the face of 
Margaret with her dress, but still the child was probably fatally burned. 

All who saw the black cloud and lived, speak of it with awe and won- 
der, and of the deathly airs that came from the volcano and were 
charged with horrible gases from the inner world, for which there is no 
name that approaches descriptiveness. In a moment the living* were 
dead. One of the expressions made at the moment of the destruction 
was that -"it fell from the sky so suddenly," it was convincing that "the 
end of the world had come." It was death to breathe, the darkness 
could be felt, and it was rent by rivers of lightning, and flowers of many 
colors. The plain story of the shock of the impending calamity at St. 
Pierre, May 8th, as appeared at Barbados, in the words, "It suddenly 
became intensely dark." 

Among the accounts following by a week the bursting of Pelee and 
the death clouds, is this : All the district for miles about St. Pierre is a 
desolate waste. Even the whole appearance of the country has been 
transformed. Where there were hills there are now deep crevasses, and 
where there were cultivated valleys there are hills. 

It is not believed that there are any persons left alive in the northern 
part of the island. Those who have not perished have fled either to this 
place or elsewhere along the south coast. How many were lost in en- 
deavors to escape in small boats to other islands will never be known. 

All that is certain is that many did take to the water in this way and 
of these .but very few have been heard from, There has been a heavy 
sea running. 

Over St. Pierre and all the country for miles around there is still, 
even in the middle of the day, a darkness from the great black canopy of 
smoke that continues to rise from Mont Pelee and spread out over the 
sky to the horizon. 



30 



THE TRAGEDY OF ST. PIERRE 



At considerable distances from where the big Soufriere of the volcano 
was new craters have broken out. 

To add to the devastation the rivers which took their rise from the 
vicinity of Pelee have overflowed their banks on the north side of the 
island and wide areas of country are under water. 

By way of London, we have, from the British Administrator of 
Dominica, this : 

"The Martinique catastrophe is even more terrible than at first re- 
ported. Refugees who arrived this morning from the north end of the 
island state that new craters are opening in many directions. 

"The rivers are overflowing their banks, and large areas on the north 
side of the island are submerged. 

"Other districts are crowded with survivors. Almost total darkness 
continues. 

"I do not believe that Guadeloupe will be able adequately to relieve 
the stupendous distress." 

A scene on the deck of the Roraima is described by one of the crew, 
who at first took refuge in the hold, and when it became unbearably hot 
went on deck: 

"All about were lying the dead and the dying. All were covered with 
hot mud and with ashes. 

"The dying were suffering terrible torture. Little children were 
moaning for water. I did what I could for them, but it was very little. 
I obtained water, but when it was held to their swollen lips they were 
unable to swallow, because of the ashes which clogged their throats. One 
little chap took water into his mouth and rinsed out the ashes, but even 
then could not swallow, so badly was his throat burned. He sank back 
unconscious and a few minutes later was dead. 

"All aft the ship was afire, and from the land came draughts of terri- 
b 1 e heat. At last, when I could stand it no longer, I sprang overboard, 
thinking that I might swim to the mouth of the harbor and thus escape. 



THE TRAGEDY OF ST. PIERRE 31 

The water was almost hot enough to* parboil me, but a wave soon swept 
in from the ocean, bringing with it cool water that made life possible. 

"I was caught in the receding wave, which was of tidal velocity, and 
was carried out to sea. Then, on the second return of the wave, I was 
washed against an upturned sloop, to which I clung." 

The panics at Fort de France were almost incessant for two weeks. 
The eruption of Pelee on the 20th, twelve days after the first supreme 
demonstration, was extremely violent, and at the port colossal columns 
of volcanic matter were ejected from the volcano, which rained huge red- 
hot bowlders, many feet in diameter, on the ruins of St. Pierre and the 
country near it from an enormous elevation and with fearful velocity. 
The volcanic clouds advanced until they reached Fort de France. 

The spectacle was appalling and beyond description. The who-le pop- 
ulation of Fort de France was thrown into a frenzy of panic during 
which soldiers, police, men and women, all terrified, frantic, weeping and 
praying, rushed through the streets, while overhead the glowing, fiery 
clouds rolled relentlessly and rained down stones, still hot, amid the 
ashes. 

Still the people had the presence of mind to be very respectful during 
the funeral services of Mr. P'rentis, the American Consul at St. Pierre. 
The friends of Mr. P'rentis, knowing his extensive information and self- 
possession, counted upon him as one who would save himself and family. 
They did not, however, contemplate the cloud of suffocation rolling 
swiftly over and beyond the swift-spreading lava, the most frightful 
form of death that ever smote a great multitude. The intelligence of 
the finding of the remains of Mr. P'rentis was disbelieved, such was the 
faith in his faculty ; and when there was no room for doubt of his death, 
and his remains were in a casket to convey to the Cincinnati, a renewal 
of the Pelee phenomena was so amazing that rapid retreat was necessary. 

A Fort de France dispatch, dated May 21, said: "Funeral services 
over the remains of Thomas T. Prentis, the late United States Consul 
at St. Pierre, were held to-day. Commander Thomas C. McLean of the 



32 THE TRAGEDY OF ST. PIERRE 

United States cruiser Cincinnati officiated, and the officers of the war 
vessels in port, the marines and sailors, Acting Consul Ayme and many 
citizens were present. The funeral cortege passed between rows of peo- 
ple, who bared their heads to the flag covering the coffin. The remains 
of the Consul are buried under an acacia tree in the cemetery here." 

Surely the panic at Fort de France is accountable when four days 
after the temple of fire abolished the city the authenticated facts were 
given in these terms : 

St. Pierre was destroyed, not by lava streams and not by showers of 
red-hot rocks, but by one all-consuming blast of suffocating, poisonous, 
burning gases. 

Death came to the inhabitants instantly. It was not a matter of 
hours or minutes; it was a matter of seconds. They did not burn to 
death. They died by breathing flame and their bodies were burned 
afterward. 

It is not merely true that no person inside the limits of the town 
escaped, but it is probably a literal fact that no person lived long enough 
to take two steps toward escape. 

These facts, which will go on record as the most astounding in the 
history of human catastrophes, have been practically established by the 
investigations of to-day and yesterday at the site of the city, helped out 
in slight degree by the scanty testimony of the few tortured sufferers on 
boats in the harbor who alone survived. 

Where St. Pierre once stood there is not even a lava bed now. The 
city is gone from the earth. 

The half-dead victims who' escaped on the Roddam or were brought 
here by the Suchet talked of a "hurricane of flame" that had come upon 
them. It now appears that that phrase was no figure of speech, but a 
literal statement of what happened. 

There are bodies lying in the streets of the city — or rather on the 
ground where streets once were, for in many places it is impossible to 
trace the line between streets and building sites — to which death came so 



THE TRAGEDY OF ST. PIERRE 33 

suddenly that the smiles on the faces did not have time to change to the 
lines of agony. 

That does not mean death by burning, though the bodies have been 
charred and half consumed, nor does it mean suffocation, for suffocation 
is slow. It can mean only the bath of burning fumes into which the city 
was plunged affected the victims like a terribly virulent poison when the 
first whiff of the gases entered their lungs. 

There are many of the victims who died with their hands to their 
mouths. That one motion of the "arm was probably the only one that 
they made before they became unconscious. Others fell to their faces 
and died with their lips pressed into the earth. 

There was no time to run, perhaps no time even to cry out, no time 
to breathe a prayer. It was as if St. Pierre had been just dipped into an 
immense white-hot furnace and then set out to cool. Mont P'elee went 
sputtering on, but that made n,e linger any difference. In the city all 
life was destroyed. 

Every combustible thing was burned. Animal bodies, full of moist- 
ure, glowed awhile and then remained charred wrecks. Wood and other 
easily combustible things burned to ashes. 

On the ground lay the bodies, amidst heaps of hot mud, heaps of 
gleaming ashes and piles of volcanic stones. That was all. 

The destroying feature in the quick annihilation of St. Pierre was 
the cloud that will be famous as the pine tree that towered prodigiously 
over Vesuvius when the ashes buried Pompeii. Engineer Davis, one of 
the few survivors of a lost ship, said : "I never can forget the horrid, 
<ffery, .choking whirlwind -which enveloped me:" 

Jean Louis Prudent was saved -by being on a ship not wholly de- 
stroyed,, and he says first there was an awful noise of explosion, and then, 
right away, a cyclone of smoke and fire, but such was the awful, poison- 
pus, choking nature of the smoke that it burned worse than the fire. 
When it struck people they fell dead. The cyclone of gas tore the masts 



34 THE TRAGEDY OF ST. PIERRE 

out of ships, blew others up and sunk some of them. Soon afterward 
came a wave of fire bigger than the smoke cloud. 

"The cloud," continued Prudent, "was bigger, it seemed, than the 
mountain. 

"The fire burned the city everywhere at once. Near me I saw only 
dead men, but on shore I saw men and women rushing back and forth 
amid the flames for an hour. They would not run long. Then came 
the choking smoke, and they would drop like dead flies. The explosion, 
smoke and fire all came and went in three minutes ; but the city burned 
for three hours." 

An evidence of the swiftness of the onslaught of fire is found in the 
fact that none of the victims were blinded, although the eyelids of most 
of them were nearly burned through. 

One who approached the demolished city three days after the de- 
struction, writes : 

"The sea for miles was covered with the wreckage of the vessels sunk 
off St. Pierre at the time of the disaster, and ashore only a few trees, all 
bent seaward by the force of the volcanic shower, were left standing. 
The heat from the smoking, lava-covered ruins at St. Pierre was suffo- 
cating, and the stench from the corpse-strewn streets was awful. 

On all sides were found portions of corpses, which were gathered 
up by the soldiers and gendarmes and burned in one of the public 
squares. 

Not a drop of water was procurable ashore. The darkness caused 
by the clouds of volcanic dust shrouded the town and continuous sub- 
terranean rumblings added to the horror of the scene. 

At the landing place some burned and ruined walls indicated the 
spot where the custom house formerly stood, and traces of the larger 
shops could be seen. In that neighborhood hundreds of corpses were 
found lying in all kinds of attitudes, showing that the victims had met 
death as if by a lightning stroke. Every vestige of clothing was burned 
away from the charred bodies, and in many cases the abdomens had 



THE TRAGEDY OF ST. PIERRE 35 

been burst open by the intense heat. Curiously enough, the features 
of the dead were generally calm and reposeful, although in some cases 
terrible fright and agony were depicted. Grim piles of bodies were 
stacked everywhere, showing that death had stricken them while the 
crowds were vainly seeking escape from the fiery deluge. On one spot 
a group of nine children were found locked in one another's arms. 

Great credit is given the few soldiers that have worked bravely 
and hard in the rescue work at St. Pierre. There were fifteen hundred 
troops, at most, available, and at the end of the first week they were 
exhausted, but still able to shoot the plunderers of the dead. Five pris- 
oners made for the United States tug Potomac in a small boat near St. 
Pierre. They were laden with watches, rings, and other articles costly 
in proportion to bulk. The French soldiers devotedly gave their time 
and strength to burning bodies that were fully exposed and to recover- 
ing specie and securities in the vaults of the banks. Most of the money, 
jewelry and valuables have been secured and placed in vaults in Fort de 
France. 

Comparatively few bodies have been found, the total number to date 
being about two thousand. The most thickly populated parts of St. 
Pierre were buried under several feet of ashes and lava, and thousands 
of bodies were cremated until little remains. This lessened the danger 
of an epidemic. In spite of the efforts of the soldiers to dispose of such 
bodies as were exposed, the stench was terrible, and many of the rescu- 
ing parties were sickened and forced to hasten away from the dreadful 
sights and odors. Excessive heat, aggravated by blasts from the moun- 
tain fires, seriously increased the difficulties of the situation. 

The appearance of ghouls on the scene of a great disaster by flood 
or fire anywhere, or the outburst of a volcano, or the presence of plague 
or any form of pestilence, has become a feature of the calamity. There 
is to be counted upon a considerable class of disorderlies who hold as 
the primary principle of wretched life that civilization is a failure and 
chaos must come again. There were robbers in the midst of the 



36 THE TRAGEDY OF ST. PIERRE 

smoking ruins of Chicago, when the great conflagration made room for 
the greater city. Thieves and assassins rushed to the ruins of Galves- 
ton, and it was as necessary to shoot them as to burn the dead caught 
in the wreckage. It was necessary while the thunders of Pelee were 
still shaking the island, and ashes fell like an infernal snow, with 
millions of stones from the waning crater, crashing upon the ruins of 
the lost city, that martial law should be declared and the prowling fiends 
shot down like wild raving beasts. 

"A chaos of silent horrors," a writer at Fort de France said was to 
be seen at St. Pierre when the outlines of streets were pelted with lava, 
where billows of viscid mud and sulphurous lava silently hove in enor- 
mous bubbles, which, as they broke, brought to the surface the charred 
bodies of the human beings the hideous brew had swallowed and dis- 
gorged. Above wheeled huge carrion birds, not daring to descend into 
so terrible a scene of nature's malignity, while at sea the overfed sharks 
reveled in acres of floating and dismembered corpses. Over all hung a 
nerve-torturing silence, forcing the unwilling throat to scream aloud lest 
brain should reel and sanity be lost in the agony of terror. 

To stand still was impossible, to go on with the knowledge that every 
step would bring to view some scene more haunting than all that had 
gone before scarcely less so, and St. Pierre in its appalling desolation 
portrayed above all else the repulsiveness of a noisome death and fear, 
the fear which makes the heart palpitate and the flowing of the blood 
through the veins become the keenest of torture. 

It was not only that charred and contorted bodies were at every 
step, it was not that here was seen a family stricken at they fled from 
the home, it was not only the child and the grandparent side by side in a 
hideous death, it was the unimagined suffering of that death, the staring 
eyeball, with the eyelid almost invariably burned through, the expanded 
nostril and the torture expressed in the rigid poise of death which showed 
that 30,000 people within one short half hour suffered to a degree that 



THE TRAGEDY OF ST. PIERRE 30 

none know and endured physical and mental torments which none can 
paint. 

From under a large stone protruded the arm of a white woman, 
while just on the other side of the stone lay a native woman, her hands 
entirely burned away and her arms charred far beyond the wrists in a 
vain attempt to raise the red-hot mass from the body of her beloved mis- 
tress. What devotion that could endure such fearful suffering at so 
panic-stricken a moment! But a yard or two farther on lay twenty or 
thirty negroes, trusting that if they could but keep together some must 
escape, and on white woman, faithful servant and abject negro alike the 
poisonous fumes and the fiery rain brought unendurable suffering, lead- 
ing to a painful death. 

Through the middle of Place Bertin, where the night before lovers 
had strolled and children played, ran a hissing, boiling stream of mingled 
mud and water, all that remained of the River Gayave, but a short time 
before a rivulet of beauty. This boiling water, here and there convulsed 
and thrown up in a jet of steam, laved with venomous touch the bodies 
of those who so short a time before had floated upon its limpid waters. 
Great trees with roots upward and scorched by fire showed the course of 
the famous Rue des Arbres, and huge stones still hot and blocks of vol- 
canic debris gave a Titanic fearsomeness to the scene. 

It is very hard to comprehend that such a reign of terror has taken 
place as that of which news came from the Caribbean Islands in May, 
1902. No one knows, or will ever know, how many thousands of per- 
sons were destroyed in St. Pierre, but a conservative estimate is 30,000, 
some say 40,000, and the time in which the multitude died is placed at 
three minutes. 

There was a cloud of fire streaming from a new crater of the old 
mountain, and the people perished in the sulphurous fumes and flames, 
a consuming fire and suffocating gas. They had a good telephone sys- 
tem in Martinique, and when the question was asked whether medical 
help was wanted, there was no answer. The people of St. Pierre were 



40 THE TRAGEDY OF ST. PIERRE 

dead and the wires were broken. Business men in many cities anxiously 
awaited advices from their correspondents in St. Pierre and got no 
letters. The agents were dead. 

There are so few living witnesses of the catastrophe that it is of 
interest to hear what was seen and heard forty miles away. Here is a 
passage : 

"A report from Barbadoes says that the sky was heavily overcast, 
the heat was excessive and there was a distant sound of thunder. Later, 
early in the afternoon, dense darkness set in and a great quantity of 
vivid dust fell and continued falling until a late hour." 

The Soufriere had been in a state of violence for nine mornings, and 
all this seemed to be merely preparatory, and then came at daybreak 
heavy thunder and great streams of lightning, and presently there was 
a continuous, tremendous roar. Vast columns of smoke rose over the 
mountain, becoming denser and denser, and the scoria-like hail, chang- 
ing later to fine dust, fell upon all the adjacent estates, destroying a vast, 
amount of property. At Chateau Belair the ashes were two feet deep 
in the streets. In Kingston they were fully an inch deep, and many 
large stones fell in the parish of Georgetown. The earth shook vio- 
lently, and at 4 o'clock in the afternoon a midnight darkness spread over 
the country. Thirty people are known to be killed and the damage to 
property in the windward district was very heavy. 

It is not denied that the one man in St. Pierre who lived in the city 
through the hours of the horrid eruption was a black criminal in a jail, 
who, because he was violent, had been placed in the dungeon below the 
level of the sidewalk. He heard the rumbling of Pelee and felt the 
tremor of the earth, and realized that something extraordinary was 
going on. He was panic-stricken with fear and beat with his hands 
against the walls, but only succeeded in getting open a door leading into 
a cell a little larger than his, over which there was an iron grating look- 
ing up through the sidewalk. He stumbled into this apartment to find 
it half filled with a sifting mass of hot ashes and dust. It burned him 



THE TRAGEDY OE ST. PIERRE 41 

severely and he was not slow to retreat to the inner cell, from which he 
had just escaped. 

Then came the awful silence that seemed to paralyze him with fear 
more than the first roar. He has since said that he lay on the floor of 
his dark cell for hours, scarcely daring to breathe, oppressed by the ter- 
rifying silence. He does not know how many hours he lay there. 
Finally he summoned up courage enough to open the cell door and look 
into the other apartments. He was met by a wave of dust that choked 
his mouth and nostrils and half blinded him. It had cooled, and he 
ventured to wade through the soft, flake-like mass toward the iron grat- 
ings, through which descended a constant shower of soft and almost 
invisible dust. He hallooed aloud again and again, and at every echo 
his voice seemed to increase the shower through the grating. 

Hunger and thirst overcame him and he crept back into his dungeon 
to sleep, but he could not. He says he did not close his eyes from the 
moment he heard the terrifying roar of the volcano ball until on Monday 
morning, four days later, when his shrieks were heard by the first party 
of searchers to invade the stricken city. His cries were feeble by this 
time and he had almost despaired of liberation. A marine from the 
French cruiser Sucliet heard Sartout's wail, and, tracing it, rescued the 
one living creature in the city. The bars of the grating had to be pried 
open and Sartout was dragged out, more dead than alive. He was 
found to be not only on the verge of death from starvation and thirst, 
but suffering from terrible burns about his legs and the lower part of 
his body. 

The charming: daughter of the consul of Italy to Barbadoes was vis- 
iting with friends. The Italian consul had been among the first to 
come to St. Pierre in search of the body of his child. Strangely enough, 
it was his fortune to identify his daughter's remains beyond peradven- 
ture of doubt. The explosive blast which had reduced wrought iron 
machinery to pulp and heavy masonry to powder, by some strange freak 



42 THE TRAGEDY OF ST. PIERRE 

had left intact a bit of needlework and a garment of French make* 
which told the consul that he had found his own dear one. 

The dead bodies of a team of horses and the wreck of a volante 
which had stood directly in front of the house where his daughter was 
a guest told plainly enough the story that they had been about to start 
for a drive when the storm of death swept through the streets and 
blasted them with its fire. 

A business man visited St. Pierre some time before the city was 
smothered, and is very interesting in describing the people whose fate 
it was to perish. He wrote : 

'The •natives were optimistic regarding storms, all appearing to 
think the last hurricane had visited them. I w T as in St. Pierre two days. 
Subsequently I toured the island. The natives are very interesting. 
Their artistic natures are highly developed. Negroes formed the great 
majority of the population of St. Pierre and of all other towns on the 
island. 

"Even now the fear of negro uprisings is never entirely allayed on 
account of the antipathy existing between the whites and the blacks, 
although the last insurrection was as far back as 1841. 

"Most of the city is modern, although the buildings are of two 
stories only, on account of the recurring earthquakes. There are two 
parts of the town, the old and new St. Pierre, the old being given up 
principally to the cabins of the negroes. Most of the people of the 
island live in the small towns. The industries are the cultivation of 
sugar-cane, coffee and fruits, and an important article of export is the 
Martinique rum. 

"The volcano, which has three craters, is northwest of the city. 
Usually at least one of the craters is moderately active. The center of 
the island is entirely volcanic, the chain of islands being of volcanic 
origin. I believe confidently that some day the entire chain will be sub- 
merged." 

And the baptism of fire came. 



THE TRAGEDY OF ST. PIERRE 45 

With a mighty roar, that seemed to shake loose the foundations of 
the universe and stun earth and sky with its deafening reverberations, a 
pillar of smoke and fire shot out of the crater of the trembling mountain 
high into the air. 

The crashing thunder followed up peal with peal, and was multiplied 
a hundred fold by the echoes from earth to clouds and from clouds to 
sea. 

A moment of silence succeeded this and then came an answering 
roar, an appalling sound, composed of the shrieks and cries and moans 
of 30,000 human beings who saw their doom upon them. There was 
something strangely lacking in this composite moan of terror. In all 
that thrilling death cry there was no bellowing of kine or barking of 
dogs or any other sounds from the lower animals. Birds and snakes 
had left their haunts and fled for safety long before. Cattle and horses 
had stampeded wherever they could. Only a few of the house dogs re- 
mained, and these in this awful moment only whined at the feet of their 
masters. Man alone had stayed to reap the penalty of his temerity. 

A mighty suction seemed for a brief space to draw every living 
thing toward the mountain and to draw the souls of men from their 
bodies. The grass and the trees bent their heads, with scarcely a rustle, 
low toward the monster of Mont Pelee, and in that silent rush of air 
the shriek of the multitude died away in a low moan. A green phos- 
phorescence filled all the atmosphere and threw a ghastly glare upon the 
faces of the stricken people. The shroud of death. The silence became 
intense. Nature's heart for one terrible moment seemed to cease its 
beating. 

A huge rolling cloud that had for a brief instant hovered at the 
mouth of the crater now began to unroll like a black curtain down the 
mountain side. 

One of the most startling descriptions given in few words of Pelee's 
outbreak was in saying it was "a crown of fire." The further state- 
ments were made that great waves of fire seemed to hedge about the 



46 THE TRAGEDY OF ST. PIERRE 

mountain top. Such thunder as has seldom been heard by man cracked 
and rolled. Ashes and rock, as well as lava, were carried skyward in 
this column to deluge the island and the ocean for miles around. Grad- 
ually the column mushroomed at the top, spreading out into dense clouds 
that descended to bring night at noontime. 

Those who saw the eruption from the sea say that masses of fire 
fell from the sky. The red hot cinders that followed the lava kept fall- 
ing till i o'clock in the afternoon. 

Mont Pelee, which is cultivated in spots up to a height of 2,500 feet, 
is usually covered to a large extent with dense forests containing a won- 
derful variety of woods, oaks, cedars, mahogany, silk-cotton, ironwood, 
and palms. The view from the peak is thus described by an enthusiast : 
"Valleys and hills, peaks and ravines, succeeding each other swiftly, as 
surge succeeds surge in a storm- — a w r eirdly tossed world, but as beauti- 
ful as weird; all green the foreground, shadowing off to billowy dis- 
tances of purest blue." 



CHAPTER III. 

DESTRUCTION BY PELEE'S RAIN OF FIRE. 

Comparative Figures of Other Great Disasters — Supposition of 
a Scientist — The Facts About the Disaster in Martinique 
as Gleaned from Later and Corroborated Reports. 

The following figures are of the destruction of human lives by floods : 

Dort, Holland, April 17, 1421, 100,000 victims. 

Canton, China, October, 1833, 10,000 victims. 

Toulouse, France, June, 1875, 1,000 victims. 

Murcia, Spain, October 16, 1879, 1,000 victims. 

Johnstown, Penn., May 31, 1889, 5,000 victims. 

Galveston, Texas, September 8, 1900, 6,000 victims. 

Professor Russell, of the Ann Arbor University of Michigan, and a 
member of the Board of Managers of the National Geographical Society, 
held for some days that the first Martinique reports were gross exaggera- 
tions, and "simply a small eruption of one of the volcanoes," gives these 
reasons : 

"Nothing was heard of the sound of the explosion on the neighboring 
islands. If the destruction had been as great as the reports would indi- 
cate, the sound would have been heard in Porto Rico and even at Florida. 
There would have been violent fluctuations of the barometer. None has 
been noticed. There would have been big water waves if earthquakes had 
increased the destruction, and none has been reported. No, I cannot 
believe the printed reports, and I have just sent a telegram to the Board 
of Managers of the National Geographical Society moving that we send 
a geographer to investigate." 

The frightful facts were not soon given because the energy of the 
earthquakes and the outpouring of lava, scalding mud, stones and gases 

47 



48 DESTRUCTION BY PELEE 'S FIRE 

were so destructive, the truth was slow getting beyond the area of utter 
destruction. There was danger at sea for considerable distances from the 
burning mountains, scattering death and annihilating all before it, as this 
dispatch displays : 

"Willemstad, Island of Curacao*, May 10. — The Italian steamer P'ede- 
monte, which arrived this morning at La Guaira, reports that while pass- 
ing near the Island of St. Vincent Thursday night her deck was covered 
by a depth of two inches with ashes and her passengers were nearly suffo- 
cated with the smell of sulphur. During Thursday all along the coast, 
especially in the Gulf of Paria, subterranean noises were heard. The 
Indians were terrorized." 

The first mate of the Roraima stated that suddenly during the eruption 
of Mount Pelee there came a sort of whirlwind of steam, boiling mud 
and fire, which suddenly swept the city and the roadstead. There were 
some eighteen vessels anchored in the harbor, including the Roraima, the 
French sailing ship Tamaya, four larger sailing ships and others. All 
vessels immediately canted over and began to burn. The Tamaya was a 
bark from Nantes, Captain Maurice, and was on her way to Pointe a 
Pitre. All the boats except the Roraima sank instantly and at the same 
moment. 

Every house ashore was utterly destroyed and apparently buried 
under the ashes and burning lava. An officer who was sent ashore pene- 
trated but a short distance into- the city. He found only a few walls 
standing and the streets literally paved with corpses. The Governor of 
the island, who had arrived only a few hours before the catastrophe, was 
killed. Both the English and American Consuls, with their families, were 
reported to have perished. 

There was not at first news, because those in the city were suffocated 

and buried in ruins and the discharges of the fearful mountain. The 

^ginning of the great Pelee eruption is thus described by an eye-witness : 

"The Roraima arrived at Martinique at 6 o'clock Thursday morning. 
At 7 : 55 o'clock these was a sudden and terrific report, and Mont Pelee 



DESTRUCTION BY PELEE'S FIRE 49 

gave vent to an ugly mass of dark matter, which, spreading over the 
entire city and environs for about seven miles, suddenly broke into a solid 
flame of fire. This flame, traveling with hurricane force, spread over the 
bay, enveloping all shipping in a perfect maelstrom. A tidal wave twenty- 
five feet high passed over the burning ships, snapping spars and funnels 
as if they were pipe stems. 

"Fire, mud, ashes and hot stones rained upon the Roraima's decks. 
I took refuge in my cabin, burying myself in the bedclothes. At one time 
I was up to my neck in hot water. Captain Muggah was fearfully burned 
and died in six hours. 

"The men who were saved fought the fire on the ship for hours. 
Finally they took to a raft and were rescued by the French war ship 
Suchet." 

The steamer Korona, from. Barbadoes, arrived at Martinique Friday 
morning and went to Fort de France, taking on Scott, mate of the 
Roraima, and Thompson, and leaving others in the hospital. 

The governor of Martinique and his family had arrived in St. Pierre 
to attend mass at 8 o'clock on the morning of the fatal day. Special 
thanksgiving services were being held, the people believing all danger 
had passed, and the cathedral and city churches were filled with wor- 
shipers at the moment of the catastrophe. 

Fort de France is said to be quite safe and no danger is apprehended 
there. 

As the direful news came out there was given such particulars as 
these : 

Dr. Verne, who is attending the patients here, lost forty-two of his 
relatives. The injured were brought here from Precheur, Carbet, St. 
Denis, Petit Anse and other places. 

M. Clarac, the wealthiest merchant in Fort de France, lost no rela- 
tives. 

The Italian consul at Barbadoes, Signor Paravicino, whose daughter 



50 DESTRUCTION BY PELEE'S FIRE 

was visiting at St. Pierre, recognized her body among the killed by the 
clothing which she wore. The body was found in the suburb of Carbet. 

No fewer than 30,(300 persons lost their lives in St. Pierre and its 
vicinity. The reports as to the number of dead there are very meager, 
and it is believed that many of the inhabitants escaped in small boats. 

There were, however, very few escapes by small boats. One who 
reached St. Pierre some days after the outbreak writes : 

The destruction there is appalling. The streets are two feet deep in 
ashes and cinders, which cover thousands of dead bodies, scorched black 
and shiny as if they had been plunged into boiling pitch. Many of the 
dead were never touched by the volcanic fire, and some of the houses and 
woodwork destroyed show no signs of burning. 

At Moudlage, in the southwestern portion of St. Pierre, the town 
hall is still standing as high as the first story, while at the fort, in the 
northwestern part of St. Pierre, the most massive stonework is calcined. 
The church tower, built by the Jesuits two centuries ago of Cyclopean 
mason work, is now like a huge heap of old metal. 

London, May 14. — Sir Frederick M. Hodgson, the governor of Bar- 
badoes, forwarded to the colonial office to-day the report of the colonial 
secretary, who has just returned from a visit to St. Pierre, Martinique. 
It confirms the worst accounts of the disaster. 

The secretary compares the ignited matter, which destroyed every- 
thing within an area of ten miles by six wide, to burning sealing wax. 
He adds significantly that the services of doctors are not required, as 
there are no wounded persons. 

Governor Hodgson estimates that 2,000,000 tons of volcanic dust fell 
on the Island of Barbadoes. 

London, May 15. — The correspondent of the Daily Mail at Barbadoes, 
B. W. L, who visited St. Pierre on board the royal mail steamer Solent, 
has learned from Dr. Artier, who miraculously escaped the disaster, that 
when the governor of Martinique, M. L. Mouttet, and the insular offi- 
cials had declared that all danger from an eruption of Mont Pelee was 



DESTRUCTION BY PELEE 'S FIRE 51 

past, a cordon of armed soldiers and policemen was placed around the 
town to prevent the people from leaving. 

Dr. Artier, however, went to the suburb of Morne Rouge. He was 
riding back to St. Pierre when the explosion occurred. He turned and 
fled precipitately across the mountains to Fort de France. 

In St. Pierre, a negro murderer was locked in a cell so far under 
ground that the gases as well as the flames failed to reach him. There 
he remained for four days before his cries were heard. 

When the cell door was thrown open he dashed away toward the 
distant woods. He is believed to have been crazed by the awful experi- 
ence through which he passed. Armed soldiers are now watching the 
workers to prevent the robbing of the dead bodies of the ruins. Vandals 
continue to profit, but orders that have been given to shoot down any 
person who is seen robbing a body will probably put a stop to the crime. 

Some of the Avails of the houses that still stand crumble and fall at 
touch. Some idea of the terrible heat that poured down from Mont Pelee 
may be had when it is known that the iron rollers of the Prinelle sugar 
mills were melted as though they had been passed through a furnace. 

The part that the scientists played at the time of the overwhelming 
explosion would be ludicrous if it were not for the stupendous terror of 
the errors. The story is that a scientific commission arrived at St. Pierre 
with all the pomp and circumstance of official prestige, on Wednesday, 
May 7th, and esteemed it their duty to comfort the people with the assur- 
ance of authority that there was no danger. The scientists were there 
to vouch for Mount Pelee as not a destroyer, but a safety valve, and they 
"studied phenomena on the spot." 

It was agreed by the members of this commission that the relative 
positions of the craters and the valleys debouching on the sea were such 
that the scientists could affirm that the security of St. Pierre was com- 
plete, and this announcement was made to allay the fears of the frightened 
citizens. 

The sun rose clear over St. Pierre at 6 o'clock on the morning of May 



52 DESTRUCTION BY FELEE'S FIRE 

8. Mont Pelee was smoking at the mouth and the wind was blowing 
westward. A few minutes before 7 o'clock a great white column of what 
seemed to be steam and gas belched forth from Mont Pelee, which seemed 
to be about 200 yards from the original crater, and which appeared to 
open up a deep rent from the top to the bottom of the mountain. 

This outbreak caused the utmost consternation and panic among the 
inhabitants of St. Pierre, who fled toward the seashore, uttering frightful 
screams, in anticipation, evidently, of what was to follow. 

Those on the Gabrielle observed a small steam yacht leaving St. Pierre 
at ten minutes after 7 o'clock with the governor and members of the 
scientific commission on board. The yacht steamed toward Le Precheur. 

All the survivors of the St. Pierre disaster continue to be greatly 
broken by the terrible experience through which they passed, says a 
dispatch to the Herald from St. Kitts, B. W. I. First Officer Scott, 
Assistant Purser Thomas and Cooper Taylor are still in a pitiable condi- 
tion. Scott, who lost a son about to enter college, cannot take his mind 
from the scenes of last Thursday. 

All three men speak in the highest terms of Captain Pierre Lebris 
of the French cruiser Suchet, whose kindness to the survivors endeared 
him to them. 

MONT PELEE AS A SAFETY VALVE. 

New York, May 14. — Sir Henry T. Wrenfordsley, who has been 
chief justice for at least six of England's colonies, among them the Lee- 
ward Islands, is in this city. Regarding the volcanic outburst in the 
West Indies, he said : 

"I don't believe there will be any great destruction elsewhere. There 
is no doubt in my mind that there is a subterranean connection between all 
that string of islands, but that fact will save the rest, perhaps. I look to 
see Mount Pelee take its place as an active volcano, at least during our 
life-time, acting as a sort of safety valve for the other islands." 

The distinguished English justice had not at this time heard the 
news from the British island of St. Vincent, 



DESTRUCTION BY PELEE 'S F1EE 53 

There was no news for a time for the same reason the doctors were 
not wanted. The spectators close to the scenes were like those immersed 
in the poisonous gas and boiling mud — they were dead. Six days after 
the bursting of Mont Pelee a dispatch from Fort de France announced 
the baptism of fire of St. Vincent. The island of St. Lucia lies between 
Martinique and St. Vincent, and the chain of islands is known as the 
Windward Islands, the Lesser Antilles and the Caribbees. The greater 
destruction of life on St. Vincent was that of the Carib Indians, and that 
means the almost total extinction of the race Columbus found. The feeble 
remnant of the race was located in St. Vincent and Dominica. There 
are a few in St. Lucia. Now that Cuba is independent there is not a 
known survivor of the race Columbus found on that island. It has long 
been a prophecy called a superstition that the Caribs would be sacrificed 
to the fire god they worshiped, and the promise now seems to be sub- 
stantially fulfilled. Down the sides of Morne Soufriere flowed and 
spread out a network of streams of lava, and many were imprisoned and 
perished. There were crushing showers of stones falling where the tor- 
rents of lava flowed. A Herald correspondent wrote : 

"By the explosion of 1812 a river that had existed ever since the dis- 
covery of the island was dried up. Down its channel there flows a swift 
stream of molten lava, which glistens like liquid silver, and which flows 
into the sea within 100 yards of Georgetown. As the water and the lava 
meet a great cloud of steam arises, and the hissing can be heard for 
miles." 

The most violent eruption took place Saturday, May 10th, three days 
later than the bursting of Pelee. The electrical display from Soufriere 
was surpassingly brilliant, "forking out from the column that reaches 
so far up into the sky that the eye cannot reach its crest." The mountain 
had been giving signs of trouble for two weeks. Soufriere raises its 
head 4,048 feet above the sea level. It lies at the northern end of St. 
Vincent and can be seen fully fifty miles at sea on a clear day. 

That entire district was a smoking, incinerated ruin. Ashes were 



54 DESTRUCTION BY PELEE'S FIRE 

everywhere, no place being less than two feet deep, and in some places 
lava had rolled over deep banks of ashes. Every Indian had disappeared. 
All vegetation disappeared. Not a sprig of green was to be seen on the 
island. Live stock died. Houses vanished. Rivers were dry, and in 
their beds ran lava. 

Everywhere north of Chateau Eelaire were dead bodies, some half- 
buried, others showing that they had been stricken down by the lightning. 
A few seemed to have been dipped into lava, which took form from them. 
Decomposition seemed to be almost immediate. 

The agony of the two mountains readied its greatest violence about 
the same time. In an account from a source independent of that quoted 
above, we find this confirmation : 

At noon three craters appeared to open and began to vomit lava. Six 
streams at once ran down the sides of the mountains, making an awful 
scene. 

The mountain labored heavily for half an hour after the appearance 
of the lava. Fire flashed around the edges of the craters, and there were 
tremendous detonations in succession, rapidly merging into* a continuous 
roar. This lasted throughout Wednesday night and until Friday morn- 
ing. The thunderings of the volcano were heard throughout the Carib- 
bean Sea. 

The eruption began Wednesday. A huge cloud in a dark and dense 
column, charged with volcanic matter, rose to a height of eight miles 
from the mountain top. Darkness like midnight descended and the sul- 
phurous air was laden with fine dust. A brief rain followed, a rain of 
favilla scoriae, rocks and stones. 

There were bright flashes, numerous and marvelously rapid. These, 
with thundering, the mountain shocks, the earthquake roar, the lava and 
falling stones made a scene terrible beyond description. 

The Royal Mail steamer Wear is transporting food and water to the 
Leeward coasts, sailing vessels proceed to the Windward coast on the 
same ocean. Doctors and nurses have gone to the scene of distress. The 



DESTRUCTION BY PELEE'S FIRE 55 

majority of the corpses being found are covered with ashes, decomposed 
and hardly approachable. The dead are being buried in trenches, thirty 
in each. 

All the earlier stories of the disaster worked by Mont Pelee have been 
verified. The destruction of the city is complete. Xot a building remains 
standing. 

Piles of dead in the vicinity of the site of the cathedral tell a story 
of the attempt to find the sanctuary and refuge in the great structure of 
worship. Men and women, panic-stricken at the cataclysm, turned in 
the moment of their despair to the cathedral and were apparently over- 
come before they could reach its doors. 

It was noted from the French island of Guadalupe that pumice-stone 
in great quantities was floating on the sea there and at the British island 
of Dominica, and that much stone has been cast upon the beaches of 
these islands. 

It . had a rather better reputation for extinction as a volcano than 
Pelee. but May 5th the beautiful lake in the old crater boiled, and steam 
ascended in clouds, and the mountain groaned and trembled. The last 
serious eruptions before this were in 181 2. The bubbling of the boil- 
ing lake during the afternoon of the 5th was varied by the quivering 
under the dreadful strain of the whole island. 

That night sulphuric flames played about the summit of the volcano, 
giving it a weird and a terrible appearance. Steam continued to rise in 
clouds, and the thunders of the skies were joined with those that came 
from the bowels of Soufriere. 

All during Wednesday, the 6th. the splendid phenomena continued, 
giving those who lived in the near vicinity of the volcano ample time 
to make their escape. All seemed to have been hypnotized, and of the 
thousands who were there only a few hundred went away. 

It was noon on Wednesday when Morne Soufriere suddenly opened, 
sending six seoarate streams of lava pouring and boiling clown its sides. 
Death was everywhere and in its most terrible forms. Lightning came 



5 b 



DESTRUCTION BY PELEE'S FIRE 



from the sky, killing many who had escaped the molten streams that 
were pouring into the valleys. 

For this great tragedy the settings were wonderful. Soufriere liter- 
ally rocked in its agony. From its summit a majestic column of smoke, 
inky black, reached skyward. The craters were vomiting incandescent 
matter that gave forth prismatic lights as it rolled away toward the sea. 

Great waves of fire seemed to hedge about the mountain top. Such 
thunder as has seldom been heard by man cracked and rolled through 
the heavens. From the earth came tremendous detonations. These 
joined with the thunder, all merging in an incessant roar that added to 
the panic of the fleeing inhabitants. 

This lasted through the night and the day and the night following. 
On Thursday morning a huge column, so black that it had the appearance 
of ebony, arose to an estimated height of eight miles from the top of the 
volcano. 

Ashes and rock, as well as lava, were carried skyward in this column 
to deluge the island and the ocean for miles around. Gradually the col- 
umn mushroomed at the top, spreading out into dense clouds that de- 
scended to bring night at noontime. 

The atmosphere was so laden with sulphurous gas that life was made 
almost impossible. Many of those nearest to Soufriere were suffocated 
by this gas before they were touched by floods of flaming mud or the 
burning stones of the amazing bombardment. 

There has been some confusion about the location of the Soufriere 
volcano, which this dispatch clears : 

Castries, Island of St. Lucia, May 13. — The Soufriere volcano, on 
the Island of St. Vincent, is still in destructive eruption. A terrific can- 
nonade can be heard 100 miles away. The reports are followed by 
columns of smoke rising miles in the air. Immense balls of colored fire 
also issue from the crater. Lightning is playing fiercely in the upper 
sky, and the whole northern part of the island is one mass of traveling 
flame. It is impossible to reach the burning district by land or sea. 



DESTRUCTION BY PELEE 'S FIRE 5? 

In the dispatch following there is one of the most startling lessons in 
geology that has been given by earthquake convulsions. 

Fort de France, Martinique, May 14.— 'Eruptions of Mont Pelee 
continue, covering the island with ashes, which are in many places many 
feet deep. Rumblings of the volcano are heard continuously. 

St. Pierre can now be approached. Troops and a man-of-war have 
been sent there to search ruins and burn the dead. The stench in the 
city is awful. 

The stream of fire that destroyed St. Pierre came from the side of 
the mountain, which opened and closed, leaving large and very deep 
Crevices near Macuba and Grand Riviere. The sea near the catastrophe 
withdrew several hundred feet, coming back steaming with fury. 

The officers in charge of a boat making soundings off the island re- 
port a depth of 4,000 feet where formerly it was only 600 to the bottom. 
Pumice stone and ashes covered the sea for many hundred miles. 

The cable repair steamer saved 500 persons who were surrounded 
by burning lava near La Precheur. Many wounded were found at 
Morne Rouge, a summer resort on the mountain that escaped the floods 
from the summit that made broader sweeps further below. 

It was in 1850 L. Hearne wrote of Pelee: 

"Pelee is not very remaikable in point of altitude, being between 
4,400 and 4,500 feet. But in bulk Pelee is grandiose. 

"Nearly thirty rivers have their birth in its flanks — besides many 
thermal springs, variously mineralized. As the culminant point of the 
island, Pelee is also the ruler of its meteorologic life — cloud-herder, light- 
ning-forger and rainmaker. During clear weather you can see it draw- 
ing to itself all the white vapors of the land — robbing lesser eminences 
of their shoulder wraps and head coverings. 

"Is the great volcano dead ? Nobody knows. Less than forty years 
ago it rained ashes over all the roofs at St. Pierre, within twenty years 
it has uttered mutterings, for the moment it appears to sleep, and the 
clouds have dripped into the cup of its highest crater till it has become 



58 DESTRUCTION BY PELEE'S F1BE 

a lake several hundred yards in circumference. The crater occupied by 
this lake, called The Pool/ has never been active within human memory- 
There are others, difficult and dangerous to visit because opening on the 
side of a tremendous gorge, and it was one of these no doubt which has 
always been called La Soufriere that rained ashes over the city in 1851. 

"The explosion was almost concomitant with the last of a series of 
earthquake shocks which began in the middle of May and ended in the 
first week of August — all much more severe in Guadeloupe than in Mar- 
tinique. 

"In the village of Au Precheur, lying at the foot of the western slope 
of Pelee, the people had been for some time complaining of an oppressive 
stench of sulphur — or, as chemists declared it, sulphuretted hydrogen — 
when on the 4th of August much trepidation was caused by a long and 
appalling noise from the mountain — a noise compared by planters on 
the neighboring slopes to the hollow roaring made by a packet blowing 
off steam, but infinitely louder. 

"These sounds continued through intervals until the following night, 
sometimes deepening into a rumble like thunder. The mountain guides 
declared: 'Cest la soufriere qui bout!' (the soufriere is boiling), and a 
panic seized the negroes." 

There was a renewal, May 20, of the gigantic disturbance with all 
its more violent features, of the original outbreak on the 8th. At 5 :30 
o'clock of the 20th, a heavy cloud rose from the crater, lit up by flashes 
of lightning and the rising sun. The telegraphing of this scene and that 
which followed was from Fort de France, and the people of that place 
became panic-stricken at the awful spectacle, and ran, crazy with excite- 
ment, through the streets. Many hurriedly embarked upon the vessels 
in the harbor, and with great difficulty they were eventually reassured. 
The detonations were loud enough to be heard in all the neighboring 
islands, and the eruption was finally pronounced worse than that of May 
8th. The ruins of the houses of St. Pierre were further wrecked, nearly 
all completely cast down, and great bowlders, it is stated, were scattered 



DESTRUCTION BY PELEE'S FIRE 59 

about everywhere. Deep clefts in the mountains disappeared, and in the* 
highlands and the lowlands the aspect of the country changed. Persons 
were hurt at Fort de France by stones crashing through the roofs of 
their houses. Villagers were reported killed or drowned. Mr. Richard, 
of Manchester, England, left all his possessions at the hotel and dashed 
into the sea. Being a good swimmer he managed to get onto the ship. 
On the morning of the 20th advices from Dominica were to the 
effect that a "curious, fiery cloud, floating in the southeastern skies, was 
seen from that island. It was surmounted by a fleecy white cap, that 
resembled highly polished silver." 

Following this marvelous appearance were vivid flashes of lightning, 
and the people were exceedingly alarmed. A dispatch from Guadeloupe 
stated, "the sounds of the eruption were similar to those on the day before 
the eruption of Mont Pelee on the 8th." Detonations of a startling char-- 
acter were heard at Antigua. Later advices state that the eruption of 
the 20th was most serious and came near involving the destruction of' 
the United States cruiser Cincinnati, and the British cruiser Indefatig- 
able. Those vessels were indebted for their safety to the fact that they 
were in motion when the formidableness of the eruption was developed, 
and, therefore, able to put to sea at full speed. 

On the northeast coast of the island there was an inundation at Bassa- 
pointe, at 2 o'clock in the morning of the 20th, and twenty houses and 
fifty other buildings were swept away by flowing mud, which passed over 
the valley of the river. 

On» this day of renewed horrors access to the ruins of St. Pierre was 
declared impossible. There was sufficient food for the refugees at Fort 
de France, but linen, clothing, bedding and disinfectants were needed, 
and money to support the refugees who- saved nothing but their lives and 
could find no work to do. 

The expedition, which resulted in the flight of the Cincinnati, which 
was fortunately well managed into safety, was for the purpose of recov- 
ering the remains of Mr. Prentis, the American Consul, and his family., 



60 DESTRUCTION BY PELEE'S FIRE 

and the British Consul and his family. The volcano broke out with 
renewed fury after a party from the American navy tug Potomac had 
landed to obtain the bodies of the Prentis family, which were found in 
the ruins of the consulate a few days ago. 

Ensign Miller of the American cruiser Cincinnati and Lieutenant Mc- 
Cormick, commanding the Potomac, were among those who landed. The 
latter remarked upon the threatening appearance of the volcano, and 
between n 130 and 12 o'clock it began to throw off steam, smoke, and 
ashes, while lightning played in the murky clouds above it. 

The laborers in the party rushed down the hill, leaving behind the 
body of Mr. Prentis, which had been placed in a casket, but the American 
sailors bravely lifted the remains and carried them to the beach. 

Meanwhile the British cruiser Indefatigable, which had come from 
Fort de France, had run out five miles to sea. The Potomac kept blow- 
ing its whistle as a danger signal to hurry the landing party to the beach. 
The situation was momentarily becoming more dangerous, and orders 
were given to leave the casket on the beach while the party hurriedly 
took to their boats and made for the Potomac. 

The American cruiser Cincinnati was in the roadstead, and its com- 
mander ordered the Potomac to cruise along the shore and look out for 
refugees, which was done. 

Dense masses of black smoke were towering for several miles above 
the volcano, while streams of lava were pouring into the sea, causing 
steam to rise in great volumes until the atmosphere looked as though 
a heavy fog was prevailing. The outbreak lasted for some time, but 
gradually abated in violence. 

Then the Potomac returned and secured the remains of Mr. Prentis, 
which were transferred to the Cincinnati, which brought them to Fort 
de France. It is not known yet whether the Indefatigable returned to 
St. Pierre to secure the remains of the British Consul. 

Hie list of great earthquakes below, with estimates of property 
ruined and lives lost, should be named with caution, except with respect 



DESTEUCTION ■ BY PELEE'S EIKE 63 

to the dates. The value of lands and houses damaged and the number 
of persons reported killed are habitually and almost proverbially exces- 
sive: 

345 B. C. — Twelve cities in the Campana buried and Duras in Greece 
destroyed with immense loss of life. 

283 B. C. — Lysimachi and its inhabitants buried. 
79 A. D. — Pompeii and Herculaneum destroyed. 

106 A. D. — Four cities in Asia, two in Greece, two in Galatia destroyed. 

157 A. D. — One hundred and fifty cities in Asia, Pontus and Macedonia 
buried. 

557 A. D. — Constantinople partly destroyed — thousands perished. 

742 A. D. — Five hundred cities in Asia, Syria and Palestine over- 
turned — immense loss of life. 

936 A. D. — Constantinople again destroyed. All Greece shaken. 
1089 A. D. — England thoroughly shaken. 
1 137 A. D. — Cantania, Sicily, destroyed; 15,000 lives lost. 
1 1 58 A. D. — In Syria, 20,000 lives lost. 
1268 A. D. — In Silesia 60,000 perished. 
1 3 18 A. D. — In England — greatest known there. 
1456, Dec. 5 — Forty thousand perish at Naples. 
1 53 1, Feb. 26 — Lisbon, 1,500 houses destroyed and 30,000 persons 

killed; several neighboring towns swallowed up in sea. 
1580, April 6 — St. Paul's, London, partly destroyed. 
1596 — Japan cities destroyed and thousands perished. 
1626, July 30 — At Naples, thirty towns destroyed; 70,000 lives lost. 
1667, April 6 — At Schamaki, 80,000 die. 

1692, June 7 — At Jamaica, 3,000 killed. 

1693, September — In Sicily, 100,000 lives lost. 
1703 — Jedod, Japan, 200,000 dead. 

1706 — Abruzzi, Italy, 15,000 perished. 

1 71 6, May — Algiers, more than 20,000 lost. 

1 73 1, Nov. 30 — One hundred thousand people buried at Peking. 



64 DESTRUCTION BY PELEE'S FIRE 

1732— Naples, 1,940 lives lost. 

1746, Oct. 28 — Lima, Peru, and Callao destroyed; 18,000 persons 

buried. 
1 75 1, Nov. 21 — San Domingo overwhelmed. Immense loss of life. 

1754, September — Cairo, loss of 40,000 lives. 

1745, June 7 — Kaschan, Persia, overturned, 40,000 people killed.. 

1755, Nov. 1 — Great Lisbon shock; 50,000 people killed at Lisbon, 12,- 

000 Arabs in Morocco buried, 2,000 houses in the Grecian archi- 
pelago overturned. 

1759, Oct. 30 — Baalbec, Syria, destroyed; 20,000 persons killed. 

1773, June 7 — Santiago, Guatemala, and its inhabitants swallowed up. 

1783, Feb. 4- — Towns in Italy and Sicily destroyed, thousands perish. 

1784, July 23 — Ezinghian, near Erzeroum, destroyed, 5,000 killed. 
1788, Oct. 12— St. Lucia, near Martinique, 900 killed. 

1 797, Feb. 4 — Panama, 40,000 people buried suddenly. 

1800-1842 — Great shocks with awful loss of life in Constantinople, Hol- 
land, Naples, the Azores, the Mississippi Valley, Caracas, India, 
Genoa, Aleppo, Chile, Spain, China, Martinique and Guadeloupe. 

1868, Aug. 13 — Cities in Ecuador destroyed; 25,000 killed and prop- 
erty loss $300,000,000. 

1883, Aug. 3 — Island of Ischia almost destroyed; 2,000 lives lost. 

1883, Oct. 20 — Krakatoa eruption in Java and Sumatra; 100,000 lives 
lost. 

1884, April 22 — Earthquake general throughout England. 

1886, Aug. 31 — Charleston, S. C, 41 lives lost; $5,000,000 property 
destroyed. 

There is a tone of terror and exaggeration in such statements as this, 
which has been largely accepted as reliable. 

In seventy-five years — that is, from 1783 to 1857 — the Kingdom of 
Naples lost 111,000 inhabitants by earthquakes. This is at the rate of 
more than 1,500 per year out of a population of 6,000,000. The most 
disastrous earthquake of recent history was the great Lisbon shock, on 



DESTRUCTION BY PELEE'S FIRE 65 

November i, 1755. In less than eight minutes almost all the houses of 
Lisbon were overturned, 50,000 of the inhabitants were killed and whole 
streets were buried. The cities of Coimbra, Oporto, Braga and St. Ubes 
were destroyed. Malaga in Spain was largely reduced to ruins. One- 
half of Fez in Morocco was destroyed and 12,000 Arabs killed. The 
Island of Madeira was laid waste, and the ruin extended to Mitylene in 
the archipelago, where half the town was laid low. The shock was felt 
5,000 miles away, and even Scotland was given a slight upheaval. 



CHAPTER IV. 

AN AWFUL OUTBREAK OF PELEE. 

The Top of the Mountain Blown Off — A Rain of Scalding Mud 
— Flood of Lava and Cyclone of Fire — O'n Horror's Head 
Honors Accumulate. 

A dispatch from Guadeloupe, dated May loth, said : On the morn- 
ing of May 5 Guadeloupe learned that the Mont Pelee volcano, in 
Martinique, had been in a state of eruption since Saturday, May 3, 
throwing out ashes. The same day violent thunderstorms began here. 
A very heavy storm occurred and loud detonations were heard. 
At noon came a rumor that lava was flowing from Mont Pelee and that 
300 lives had been lost at St. Pierre. 

All that day were heard here loud noises like the discharge of heavy 
artillery far off. It is now known that these noises were from the 
Martinique volcano. In the afternoon the cable connections with Mar- 
tinique all disappeared. A very heavy thunderstorm then broke over 
Guadeloupe and lasted for a considerable time and rumors were current 
that the Soufriere volcano in Guadeloupe was more active. 

The word Soufriere, so frequently used, means a sulphur crater, and 
applies to more than one mountain. A dispatch of May 10th, dated at 
Fort de France, said many believed an explosion even more serious 
than that of ten days ago will mark the culmination of the activity of 
Pelee. 

Ashes were spouted in great clouds from the crater all day yesterday. 
The explosion began in the early morning, when a black cloud arose 
above Mont Pelee, accompanied by internal rumblings and a tremor 
of the earth that sent the sea back from the land in powerful waves. 

This column was first caught by a current of air that carried it 
northward. Then an upper air current swept it back in the opposite 

66 




THE RIVER AT ST. PIERRE, Martinique, Before the Eruption of Mount Pelee in 1902. 




■W OLD STAIRWAY IN BOUILLE STREET In St. IMerre, Martinique, Before the Town Was Destroyed 
by ihe Volcanic Eruptions in 1902. Native Girls with Head Dress for Carrying Burdens. 



AWFUL OUTBREAK OF PELEE 69 

direction. Thus it made an immense and well-formed letter T, the 
base of which rested in a cup of flame in the crest of the volcano* from 
which it sprang. 

Then the wind veered and a mantle of darkness was swept westward 
across the island, enveloping Fort de France, upon which volcanic dust 
fell to a depth of more than an inch and a half. 

So heavy was the dust that filled the air that respiration became a 
labor, and a fear of suffocation came upon the inhabitants. Great alarm 
continued for more than four hours, and it was not until the cloud of 
ashes blew out to sea in the early evening that confidence was restored. 

All last night the summit of Mont Pelee had the appearance of a 
gigantic blast furnace at which great forces were working. Flames shot 
skyward in sheets that at times lighted up the entire island. For a few 
minutes the fires would drop back into the mouth of the crater, only to 
reissue with redoubled force. 

Still there was no adequate understanding of the terrible desolation 
wrought. As the people fled from their houses there were thieves who 
robbed and burned the deserted homes. 

The first news sent to Europe of the St. Pierre disaster was in these 
terms : 

"St. Thomas, May 9. — St. Pierre and its inhabitants, with all the 
shipping, have been totally destroyed by a volcano." 

May 10, the day following the receipt in London of the foregoing 
telegram, the London Times contained the following editorial, which 
for its timely and condensed information is worthy of preservation : 

"The intelligence of an appalling disaster to the French West Indian 
island of Martinique conveyed in the brief but unambiguous telegram 
from our correspondent in St. Thomas, which we published yesterday, 
has been but too amply confirmed by the official information since 
received at the Ministry of Marine in Paris. The despatch sent from 
Fort de France by Captain Le Bris, the commander of the French cruiser 
Suchet, to M. de Lanessan leaves no room for doubt that the flourishing 



70 AWFUL OUTBREAK OF PELEE 

town of St. Pierre has been wholly swept away by an eruption from 
Mont Pelee, the great volcanic peak at the northern end of Martinique 
which terminates the mountain formation of the island. A later tele- 
gram received at the French Colonial Office from the Secretary-General 
of Martinique confirms the tidings, stating that St. Pierre, its environs, 
and the ships in its harbor have been destroyed in a rain of fire. In this 
terrible catastrophe, the sudden and annihilating force of which almost 
transcends imagination, practically the entire population of the town, 
numbering, if the dwellers in its suburbs be included, some 36,000 souls, 
is said to have perished. Only thirty survivors could be brought off on 
the Suchet by Captain Le Bris, who states that St. Pierre was enveloped 
in flames and completely destroyed early on Thursday morning. When 
the French commander left the remains of the ill-fated town the erup- 
tion was still continuing, and we are not likely to hear further definite 
news of what is taking place in the neighborhood of Mont Pelee until 
Captain Le Bris, who has gone to Guadeloupe to obtain provisions, re- 
turns to Martinique. The first signs of the approach of this catastrophe, 
which, as our Paris correspondent says, has stunned the French public, 
were observed at the end of last week, but the eruption was not then 
thought likely to have serious consequences. On Monday, however, the 
Guerin factories, two miles from St. Pierre, were destroyed, and 150 
persons were reported missing. On Tuesday, M. Mouttet, the Governor 
of Martinique, who, it is feared, must have perished in the ruined town, 
announced that streams of boiling mud were pouring continuously from 
the crater; and after this the situation of St. Pierre must have grown 
more and more crucial until, at 8 o'clock in the morning on Thursday, 
the town was consumed in a general conflagration. A single ship, the 
British steamer Roddam, has succeeded in making her escape from the 
port, but not without severe loss among her crew. With the exception 
of this vessel and of the few survivors rescued by the Suchet all those 
who were in or near St. Pierre at the time when the eruption reached its 



AWFUL OUTBREAK OF PELEE 71 

most devastating state must, it is feared with only too good reason, have 
lost their lives in the final terrible disaster. 

"The island whose busiest and most important settlement has been 
destroyed by this melancholy catastrophe is practically the center of that 
long chain of the Lesser Antilles which, sweeping in a great arc south- 
wards, forms the eastern boundary of the Caribbean Sea. Our largest 
West Indian colony, Jamaica, lies among the Greater Antilles far to 
the north-westward; but Dominica and St. Lucia, Martinique's immedi- 
ate neighbors to north and south, are British, and Martinique itself has 
been more than once temporarily in our possession. Around it, as 
around its fellow-islands, raged more or less continuously the stormy 
warfare of that long duel between France and England which filled the 
greater part of the eighteenth century and closed only with the termina- 
tion of the Napoleonic age. In the minds of Englishmen it is associated 
inseparably with some of the brightest pages in the annals of our naval 
prowess, and, above all, with the glorious name of Rodney. Three times 
has it passed into British hands, and three times has it passed back into 
those of France. For nearly a hundred years it has now preserved 
unbroken that French connection into which it entered as early as the 
seventeenth century. The French Government has during this period 
watched carefully over its development, and Martinique has rewarded 
the attention lavished on it by passing through the days of West Indian 
depression far from unprosperously. It presents many of the most 
salient features characteristic of our own islands in the West Indies. 
It has the volcanic scenery of Dominica and St. Vincent, and, like Trini- 
dad and Barbados, it has a staple industry of sugar. In the thriving 
town of St. Pierre its commercial life was centered. There, too, were the 
Courts of Justice, and a handsome cathedral, for St. Pierre was an 
episcopal see. Though not the official capital of Martinique, that place 
of primacy being occupied by Fort de France, it held the virtual head- 
ship of the island as being the focus of its active life. The terrible fate 
which has suddenly annihilated it may be said to have fallen upon it 



72 AWFUL OUTBREAK OF PELEE 

almost entirely unawares; for, although Martinique was frequently 
visited by earthquakes during the eighteenth century and is said to have 
suffered as many as 200 shocks in 1843, the great volcano of Mont 
Pelee, nearly 5,000 feet high, the very name of which bears ominous 
witness to the devastating influence of its crater, had been silent and 
untroubled ever since 1851. 

"Modern parallels to this catastrophe, which has something of the 
same destructive completeness as the fate which overtook Pompeii more 
than eighteen centuries ago, are few and far between. Japan and Java 
have both within recent years experienced considerable seismic shocks, 
but probably the instance of an eruption of great desolating power which 
will recur most readily to the mind is the extraordinary explosion which 
occurred in the volcanic island of Krakatoa, lying between the coasts of 
Sumatra and Java, in the summer of 1883. By a titanic upheaval, which 
was audible in the Andaman Islands and in India, Krakatoa hurled the 
greater part of itself into the ocean, called two fresh islands into being 
out of the enormous blocks of matter which it threw off, and produced 
a vast reflex movement in the sea which swept down with awful force 
en the low-lying shores of Java and Sumatra. The loss of life occa- 
sioned by this astonishing convulsion seems to have been curiously 
similar to that which has just been caused in the island of Martinique, 
for some 30,000 persons are said to have fallen victims to Krakatoa. But 
the effects of the disaster of 1883, though not less terrific than those 
which are described to-day, were diffused comparatively widely, whereas 
the full force of the eruption of Mont Pelee appears to have concentrated 
itself on a single devoted town. The circumstantial accounts which 
we have now received of the destruction of St. Pierre forbid us to 
hope that any further tidings which may be yet to come can impair in 
any very material degree the accuracy of the sad news which is before us. 
We can only trust that the volcanic upheaval has now spent itself, and 
that the signs of activity observed during the past week in the craters 
of Dominica and St. Vincent will not be the prelude to fresh seismic dis- 



AWFUL OUTBREAK OF PELEE 73 

turbances. There is no reason to anticipate another calamity similar in 
magnitude to that in Martinique. But no considerations of what may 
take place in the future can efface the mournful impression which will be 
everywhere created by the terrible catastrophe that has just annihilated 
St. Pierre. So sad a misfortune touches the simplest and deepest feel- 
ings of our common humanity. In this country the regret and sympathy 
for France in her loss will be especially keen. YVe draw from our own 
colonies so much of the vitalizing energy of our national life, and our 
hopes and aspirations are so inseparably bound up with theirs, that we 
can realize in the fullest degree the poignant sorrow which France must 
feel at this sudden destruction of one of her centers of colonial enter- 
prise. 

"The attention of Englishmen, at first engrossed by the calamity 
which descended with such terrible suddenness upon Martinique, has 
now for the time being shifted from the ruins of St. Pierre to our own 
suffering colony of St. Vincent. How serious St. Vincent's losses had 
been was hardly realized until yesterday's announcement that some 
1, 600 persons had perished made clear for the first time the sad extent 
of the disaster. The official report on the situation dispatched bv the 
Governor of the Windward Islands to the Secretary of State for the 
Colonies, so far from minimizing the grave character of the catastrophe, 
amplifies our conception of its scope, and the people of this country will 
therefore welcome with the warmest approval and satisfaction the initia- 
tive taken by Mr. Chamberlain in invoking the assistance of the Mansion- 
house on behalf of our distressed colonists. At the request of the 
Colonial Secretary the Lord Mayor has opened a fund for their relief, 
and has invited the Lord Mayors and Mayors of the metropolis and 
the country generally to co-operate with him in endeavoring to secure 
a prompt and liberal response to his appeal. Xow that this most effective 
of all channels of organized charity has been thus thrown open, it will 
doubtless be generally recognized as advisable to divert into it such 
benefactions as may have flowed in to funds started by private individuals. 



74 AWFUL OUTBREAK OF PELEE 

Mr. Chamberlain, in his letter to the Lord Mayor, puts briefly and forcibly 
before us the strong claims which St. Vincent has upon the generosity 
of Englishmen. He recalls the devastation of the island by the hurri- 
cane of 1898, and the way in which the powerful influence of the 
Mansion-house was then successfully set at work:. He observes with 
truth and cogency that no part of the King's dominions deserves more 
truly than St. Vincent the practical sympathy of the people of this 
country. 'In normal times it has been among the most distressed islands 
in the sorely tried group of West Indian colonies, and, in addition, it- 
has now within the space of four years been visited by two calamities 
which it would be difficult, probably impossible, to parallel in the history 
of a British colony.' To fill out in detail this comprehensive statement 
of St. Vincent's claims we have only to turn to the report in which Sir 
R. B. Llewellyn, himself an eyewitness of the island's destitution, sums 
up the impressions made upon him by the consequences of this desolat- 
ing eruption. He pronounces the condition of affairs to be much worse 
than any reports previously forwarded to him had led him to suppose. 
The country on the eastern coast of the island between Georgetown and 
Robin Rock, where all life appears to have been annihilated, has been 
blasted like St. Pierre, and the scenes in this devastated area are, says 
the Governor, 'too harrowing to describe.' In the Carib country, which 
lies below the Soufriere at the northern and north-eastern extremity of 
the island, all the best sugar estates have been wrecked and the cattle 
destroyed." 

R. T. Brown, secretary and manager of the West India and Panama 
Telegraph Company in London, issued a statement May 15th on tele- 
graphic communication with the West Indies, giving the following infor- 
mation : 

"Owing to the interruption of four of this company's cables, caused 
by volcanic disturbance, there is a delay of about 24 hours in telegraph- 
ing to and from this country and Barbados, St. Vincent, Grenada, Trini- 
dad, and Demerara, as telegrams have to be conveyed by our specially 



AWFUL OUTBKEAK OF PELEE 75 

chartered vessels, and by steamers, either to and from St. Lucia, or any 
other place which may better ensure despatch. 

"I may add that the usual cable communication with St. Lucia and 
all our stations to the north of it remains in full working order." 

May 8th a cablegram to London from St. Vincent brought the infor- 
mation that Soufriere was smoking, and the next thing the St. Lucia 
cables were interrupted. The following cablegrams are pertinent 
records in the history of the disaster : 

"St. Thomas, May n. — St. Pierre was destroyed in the twinkling 
of an eye. A whirlwind of steam, boiling mud, and fire swept the city 
and the roadstead. Eighteen vessels anchored there instantly canted 
and began to burn and sink." 

"Port Castries, St. Lucia, May 10. — On the 5th inst. a stream of 
burning lava rushed down the side of Mont Pelee from a height of 
4,400 feet, following the dry bed of a torrent and reaching the sea, 
five miles from the mountain, in three minutes. As the lava rushed 
down, the sea receded 300 feet on the west coast, returning with greater 
strength in a big wave, which covered the whole of the front, but did 
little damage. On the afternoon of the 8th the streamer Roddam 
crawled slowly into Castries Harbor. She was quite unrecognizable, 
being grey with ashes, while her rigging was dismantled and her sails 
and awnings were hanging torn and charred. The captain reported 
that he had just anchored off St. Pierre at 8 o'clock in the morning in 
fine weather following upon an awful thunderstorm in the night, and 
was talking to the ship's agent, Mr. Joseph Plissono, who was in a boat 
alongside, when he saw a tremendous cloud of smoke glowing with live 
cinders rushing with terrific rapidity over the town and port. The 
former in an instant was completely enveloped in a sheet of flame, which 
rained fire on board the steamer. The agent had just time to climb 
on board when his boat disappeared. Several men of the Roddam's 
crew were quickly scorched to death. By almost superhuman efforts 
the cable was slipped, and steam being still up the vessel backed out 



76 AWFUL OUTBREAK OF PELEE 

from the shore and arrived here nine hours later. Ten of the Roddam's 
men were lying dead, having been burned out of all human semblance, 
among the black cinders which covered the deck to a depth of six inches. 
Two more have since died. The burning cinders continued to fall upon 
the ship for six miles after she was under way." 
A press correspondent cabled as follows : 
"Kingstown (St. Vincent), May 15. — I have just returned here 
from a 50-mile ride on horseback in the devastated districts of St. Vin- 
cent. I penetrated to within five miles of the Soufriere crater. The 
entire northern part of the island is covered with ashes averaging 18 
inches in depth, and varying from a thin layer at Kingstown to 24 
inches or more at Georgetown. The streets of Georgetown are encum- 
bered with heaps of ashes like snow-drifts, and several roofs have fallen 
in from the weight of the deposits upon them. The hospital here is 
filled with the dying. Fifty sufferers are lying on the floor for want of 
beds, but cots are being rapidly constructed of boards. Two or three 
days elapsed before the dead could be buried, as the negroes refused to 
dig the trenches, though offered thrice the usual wages. The nurses 
available are incompetent, but willing to learn, and are working hard. 
The negroes are indifferent. They expect to receive Government 
rations, and there are instances in which they have refused to bury their 
own relatives. The commander of the United States tug Potomac 
visited Sir R. B. Llewellyn, Governor of the Windward Islands, to 
express the sympathy of the United States and to offer to render any 
assistance in his power. The commander of the Potomac also landed 
all the provisions he could spare. The Governor expressed his thanks. 
Rain would be welcome, as the clouds of dust which fill the air are 
intensely irritating to the eyes and throat. Many people in the dread of 
further eruptions are flocking into the city. The Carib survivors, leaving 
the cover they had found, are pillaging the abandoned dwellings and 
shops." 




STREET SCENE IN ST. PIERRE, Martinique, Showing Types of Natives in the Streets. 



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MAP OF THE WINDWARD ISLANDS. 



AWFUL OUTBREAK OF PELEE 79 

The following" is from the Kingston correspondent of the London 
Times : 

"Kingston, Jamaica, May 16. — The Atrato arrived here this morn- 
ing. She had passed St. Pierre and reports the whole countryside a 
mass of lava and ashes. Not a living soul was to be seen. The ocean 
bed in the vicinity seems to have risen, and the whole chain of the West 
Indies is enveloped in a dense cloud of volcanic dust. The Atrato brings 
details of the eruptions. In the last days of April smoke was noticed on 
Mont Pelee and rumbling sounds were heard. On May 3 the mountain 
threw out dense masses of smoke, and at midnight belched forth flames. 
Next morning the sky was dark with clouds and ashes. The inhabitants 
of the villages of Precheur and St. Philomene at the foot of the volcano 
grew alarmed and left the district. Ashes fell on St. Pierre, which by 
evening was covered a quarter of an inch thick. The mountain was in- 
visible. The alarm was so general that business was suspended. On 
Sunday a sea-breeze swept the ashy fog from the town, but at evening 
dust and scoria fell again. The night passed without incident. 

"At noon on Monday a stream of burning lava 20 feet high suddenly 
rushed down the southwestern slope, and following the dry bed of the 
river Blanche, swept away buildings, plantations, and people in a tremen- 
dous rush to the sea, five miles distant. It was all over in three minutes. 
The Guerin factory on the beach near the mouth of the river was em- 
bedded in lava; only the chimney could be seen. The sea then receded 
along the western coast a distance of 100 yards, and returning invaded 
St. Pierre. A great panic ensued, and the people made for the hills. 
Loud detonations were heard at short intervals, and from the mountain 
broke forth dense masses of smoke and lurid flashes of flame. When 
darkness fell the sight was so terrible that people ran to and fro wailing 
and screaming. Earthquakes were frequent, and as assistance was being 
implored from other islands the cable snapped. On Tuesday the same 
conditions prevailed, and a number of people left for St. Lucia. On 
Wednesday an appalling thunder storm burst over the island ; but Thurs- 



80 AWFUL OUTBREAK OF PELEE 

day broke fine. It was Ascension Day, and all the stores were closed. In 
the morning the Roddam, from St. Lucia, arrived and was ordered to 
the quarantine ground. 

''Shortly afterward a black cloud of smoke appeared on the top of the 
mountain. A loud explosion occurred, and vast sheets of flame and glow- 
ing cinders descended on the town and the sea. An awful scream from 
thousands of throats was stifled by the rain of fire, and in a moment the 
town was destroyed. The Roddam had steam still up. The rolling of 
the sea broke her anchor and she backed slowly out, the men falling as- 
phyxiated or burned, or leaping into the sea in agony. The captain was 
frightfully burned, but, looking around, saw the captain of the Roraima 
waving a goodbye as his vessel sank. The Roddam succeeded in reach- 
ing Castries, only 12 returning out of 40 who went. Those dead on the 
deck were charred and twisted beyond recognition. 

"The town and its inhabitants were destroyed by sulphurous fumes, 
flames and hot ashes. The scene afterward was frightful. It was dark 
as pitch ; flames were leaping from the mountain and the air was charged 
with brimstone ; a deep silence reigned in the dead town, which was a 
mass of flames ; the ships riding at anchor were blowing up at intervals. 

'Tor some weeks earthquake shocks had been felt in the northern 
districts of St. Vincent, chiefly between the Soufriere and the sea, called 
the Carib country. On May 3 19 shocks were felt within half an hour. 
On Monday they increased in severity and many people fled. On Tues- 
day smoke was seen issuing from the volcano. The people, having no 
boats, began to trek across country. One man said the earth was too hot 
to walk on, and he saw boiling water in the crater. At 3 p. m. jets of 
flame sprang up from the older of the two craters, and at 5 there was an 
explosion, which caused uneasiness in Kingstown, 16 miles away. The 
Administrator sent the Chief of Police, a colonial surgeon, and a district 
warden to investigate. They arrived at midnight and found the crater 
blazing in indescribable splendor. 

"Next morning the whole range of mountains was affected. Jets of 



AWFUL OUTBREAK OF PELEE 81 

steam and fire were issuing from crevices, and terrific detonations were 
occurring. At i p. m. both craters erupted and threw out gigantic vol- 
umes of lava., steam, stones, mud, and ashes, accompanied by lightning 
flashes. Great streams of lava poured over the brim and from the many 
different fissures and rushed down to the sea, reducing the whole face of 
the Carib district to cinders. 

"The people of Wallibu, Morne Ronde, and Richmond, at the foot 
of the Soufriere, escaped, but large numbers of others were killed by 
lightning and stones, some of these being 18 inches in circumference. 

"Extensive physical changes have taken place. The sea has risen in 
the Wallibu district; the Richmond estate is engulfed, the top of the 
chimney alone being visible; the countryside is covered over 2 feet with 
ashes. During the eruption Kingstown was enveloped in darkness, and 
scorious pebbles fell in a hail. The dust there was 1 inch deep." 



CHAPTER V. 

FRIGHTFUL PRANKS OF MONT PELEE, 

Inhabitants of St. Pierre Warned by Minor Eruptions Several 
Days Before the Destruction of the Town — Evidence in 
Letters Written Before the Eruption — A Series of Erup- 
tions Followed the Great Upheaval. 

The dark and rugged mountain that loomed over the doomed City 
of St. Pierre had, before the terrors of the May days of 1902,, a record 
for activity at intervals, and was in its lofty steeps exceedingly desolate 
and threatening. Notwithstanding the people dwelt in that queer state 
of confidence peculiar to> the inhabitants of the fertile slopes of the vol- 
canoes, below the immediate presence of the craters, and where the 
ancient lava beds have become soil that is tempting. 

The news came from Paris nearly a fortnight after the destruction 
of St. Pierre that letters from writers who perished in the waves of lava 
and clouds of fire record strong expressions of alarm five days before the 
hideous disaster. The letters are full of hope and fear, for the volcano 
was becoming furious, yet none fled from the threatened disaster. In- 
stead, the letters relate that the suburban population flocked into the city, 
expecting to find protection beneath its secure roofs. 

One of the letters published in Paris was written by a young woman 
May 30. After describing the aspect of St. Pierre before dawn, the town 
being lit up with flames from the volcano, everything covered with 
ashes, and the people greatly excited, yet not panic-stricken, she wrote: 

"My calmness astonished me. I am awaiting the event tranquilly. 
My only suffering is from the dust which penetrates everywhere, even 
through closed windows and doors. We are all calm. Mamma is not a 
bit anxious. 

"Edith alone is frightened. If death awaits us there will be numer- 

82 



FRIGHTFUL PRANKS OF MONT PELEE 85 

ous company to leave the world. Will it be by fire or asphyxia ? It will 
be what God wills. You will have our last thoughts. Tell Brother Rob- 
ert that we are still alive. This will, perhaps, be no longer true when this 
letter reaches you." The Edith mentioned was a woman visitor 
among the rescued. This and other letters inclosed samples of the 
ashes which fell over the doomed town. The ashes are a bluish-gray 
impalpable powder, resembling newly ground flour and slightly smelling 
of sulphur. 

Another letter, written the afternoon of May 3, says: "The popu- 
lation of the neighborhood of the mountain is flocking to the city. Busi- 
ness is suspended, the inhabitants are panic-stricken and the firemen are 
sprinkling the streets and roofs to settle the ashes which are filling the 
air." 

Still another letter says : "St. Pierre presents an aspect unknown to 
the natives. It is a city sprinkled with gray snow, a winter scene with- 
out cold. The inhabitants of the neighborhood are abandoning their 
houses, villas and cottages and are flocking to the city. It is a curious 
pell-mell of women, children and barefooted peasants, big, black fellows 
loaded with household goods. The air is oppressive; your nose burns. 
Are we going to die asphyxiated ? What has to-morrow in store for us ? 
A flow of lava, rain of stones or a cataclysm from the sea? Who can 
tell? Will give you my last thought if I must die." 

A St. Pierre paper of May 3, received by mail, announces that an 
excursion arranged for the next day to Mont Pelee had been postponed, 
as the crater was inaccessible. 

The eruption of Pelee that began with the destruction of the City of 
St. Pierre continued with uncommon pertenacity, and as has often hap- 
pened, the agitation of the fiery forces deep in the earth has been an- 
swered with sympathetic vibrations in far distant lands. It is memorable 
that the Lisbon earthquake that proved so destructive to life by the sink- 
ing of a marble quay, that seemed the place least liable to danger, was 
felt distinctly over one-third of the earth's surface. The Krakatoa erup- 



86 FRIGHTFUL PRANKS OF MONT PELEE 

tion was recorded by scientific instruments around the world, and the 
sound of the explosion was distinct thousands of miles. The furious 
revival of the Pelee phenomena, twelve days after the top of the moun- 
tain was blown off, as if all the dynamite in the world had been exploded, 
was accompanied by a formidable shake in California. A Port de 
France cable gives a thrilling account of the second grand commotion 
of the prodigy of fire alarms : 

Fort de France, May 20. — Four ships had a narrow escape from 
destruction in the harbor of St. Pierre yesterday. The British cruiser 
Indefatigable, the United States tug Potomac, the steamer Estafette and 
the dredger Converino were caught in a heavy shower of lava, caused by 
the renewal of the tremendous eruptions from Mont Pelee. The vessels 
barely got away before catching fire in the dense gloom caused by smoke 
and ashes thrown from the volcano. 

At 6 o'clock yesterday morning the steamer Estafette proceeded 
hence for St. Pierre. Mont Pelee was very active and smoke and ashes 
thrown from the volcano were visible for the entire distance from Fort 
de France to the ruined city. When the Estafette reached Carbet, a 
suburb of St. Pierre, the gendarmes there stopped the steamer, declaring 
that it was unsafe for her to venture nearer to the volcano. After a 
short stop the Estafette proceeded, followed by the dredger Converino, 
which had a party of laborers on board who were to be employed in 
destroying the bodies of victims. 

As these laborers landed there was a tremendous eruption, and they 
returned with all possible speed to the dredger, which steamed away for 
Fort de France. Immediately afterward those on the Estafette saw 
about fifty fugitives on the beach. The eruption subsiding for a time 
the Estafette steamed close in shore with the object of taking the fugi-. 
tives on board. 

About this time the American naval tug Potomac arrived for the 
purpose of recovering the bodies of the American and British Consuls. 
A party from the ship went ashore, and shortly afterward the British 



FRIGHTFUL PRANKS OF MONT PELEE 8 7 

cruiser Indefatigable arrived. Before the cruiser could be anchored 
there were several tremendous eruptions. The sight was a terrible one. 
The Indefatigable immediately proceeded out to sea, with the Estafette 
following her. The Potomac cast loose and steamed slowly southward, 
blowing her whistle continuously. 

All the ships came near catching fire. Immense quantities of lava 
were falling into the sea, and the clouds of smoke and ashes were miles 
in extent. 

Fort de France, Martinique, May 19. — Mont Pelee's activity still 
continues to be a source of the greatest apprehension to the residents of 
this city and other sections of the island. The volcano continues to 
throw out immense quantities of cinders, which, owing to a change in 
the direction of the wind, are now covering the southern sections of the 
island. Violent explosions have been heard at Le Carbet. 

The American and English officers who have been searching the 
ruins of St. Pierre for the bodies of the United States and British Con- 
suls and their families have found the remains of Mr. Prentis, the Amer- 
ican representative, an,d the members of his family. They will be 
brought to Fort de France, where Mr. Prentis will be buried with mili- 
tary honors. 

The American collier Sterling has started for St. Vincent, where she 
will land provisions and medical supplies. 

The captain of the French cruiser Suchet and other officers are dis- 
cussing the question of bombarding the ruins of St. Pierre when the 
French .squadron arrives. 

Paris, May 19. — M. Decrais, the Minister for the Colonies, has re- 
ceived the following dispatch from Acting Governor L'Huerre of Mar- 
tinique, dated Fort de France, Sunday : 

"Instructions have been given to forward to you duplicate reports of 
the distribution of relief supplies. I have informed the inhabitants that 
provisions are expected on the United States naval vessel Dixie and the 
steamships Fontabelle and Madlana. I shall exempt the cargoes from 



88 FRIGHTFUL PRANKS OF MOUNT PELEE 

duties, as I have done in the case of former consignments. Captain 
Hugh J. Gallagher, an American army officer, is expected to arrive 
aboard the Dixie to supervise the distribution of supplies. It has hith- 
erto been unnecessary to make money grants to the victims, but food 
has been distributed with incomparable devotion by the Mayor and Relief 
Committee. I am occupied in giving work to the refugees. 

"I returned on the cruiser Suchet on Saturday. The territory be- 
tween St. Pierre and Precheur is completely ravaged. Grand Riviere 
is buried in cinders. The large properties at Macouba and Basse Pointe 
are in good condition. The small properties in Lorrain have been dam- 
aged. The people are quiet and brave. Distribution cf food has been 
made to the victims at Grand Riviere, Macouba, Basse Pointe > and Lor- 
rain. I have appointed a commission to examine the demands made by 
the survivors of families who have disappeared at St. Pierre. A search 
is being made under the inspection of the police for valuables, which, if 
recovered, will be placed in the care of the police and handed to the 
proper owners." 



CHAPTER VI. 

THE NAME OF THE TERRIBLE MOUNTAIN. 

Detail of the Horrors of the Ruined City — Fatal Conservatism 
of the Governor of Martinique — Report of the Adven- 
turous Scientific Exploration of Mont Pelee, and the 
Daring Journey to the Crater of George Kennan, the 
Historian and Correspondent. 

The name of the terrible mountain in Martinique, which has so 
suddenly acquired so vast a distinction, is not everywhere interpreted to 
mean the same thing. They have in Hawaii, where the most constant 
snd enormous active volcanoes in the world are located, a superstition 
about a goddess Pelee, and it is alleged to have been one of the customs 
of the natives to sacrifice to the fire goddess, that she may be propitiated, 
white pigs; but there is no stated formality of offering the animals 
beyond casting occasionally a suckling into the boiling crater. The 
word Pelee there has become identified especially with the lava which 
streams down the mountains in a style alleged at times to resemble a 
flood of hair. The lava, therefore, is Pelee's hair! In the French 
definition of the word, the coarser and more familiar description of it 
is that the mountain that furnishes the fireworks is "bald-headed," and 
instead of having reverence for the display, it is held to be that the 
mountain is personified as a ragamuffin. There seems to be a certain 
contradiction between the Hawaiians and the French. However, what- 
ever hair there may be of the texture of lava, the head of the mountain, 
down whose sides it flows, in shapes that bear a rude resemblance to 
cold molasses, and remotely suggest masses of disordered auburn hair, 
it is no misnomer to call the mountain bald at the top. 

According to the opinion of the people at large at the time the news 

89 



90 NAME OF THE TERRIBLE MOUNTAIN 

of the outburst of Mont Pelee in Martinique, on the 8th of May, was 
extremely exaggerated, and there was a general expression of surprise 
that the first reports rapidly received confirmation; that the disasters 
inflicted were magnified as the details came in. There was something 
of that as more careful and competent observers reported the result of 
their investigation. Three days after the outbreak of Pelee, there was 
this dispatch from Fort de France: 'The disaster is complete; the city 
of St. Pierre wiped out. Consul Prentis and his family are dead. The 
Governor says thirty thousand have perished ; fifty thousand are home- 
less and hungry." All this has been verified. It was received with great 
incredulity. 

Lafcadio Hearn, in 1888, wrote of his arrival at St. Pierre: "Morn- 
ing : A gold sunrise. The wind has fallen. It is a great, warm caress. 
The sea is deep indigo, the sky a cloudless and tender blue. Martinique 
looms before us. At first it appears all gray, a vapory gray; then it 
becomes bluish gray; then all green. 

"It is another of the beautiful volcanic family ; it owns the same hill 
shapes with which we have already become familiar; its uppermost 
height is hooded with the familiar cloud; we see the same gold yellow 
plains, the same wonderful varieties of verdancy, the same long green 
spurs reaching out into the sea — doubtless formed by old lava torrents." 

He added in his style of sunset colors: "The semicircular sweep of 
the harbor, dominated by the eternally veiled summit of the huge Mont 
Pelee (misnamed, since it is green to the very clouds) from which the 
land slopes down on either hand to the sea by gigantic undulations, is 
one of the fairest sights that human sight can gaze upon. 

"The city of St. Pierre, on the edge of the land, looks as if it had 
slided down the height of the hill behind it, so strangely do the streets 
come tumbling down the steep in cascades of masonry, with a red billow- 
ing of tiled roofs over all and enormous palms poking up through it, 
higher even than the white twin towers of its antiquated cathedral. We 



NAME OF THE TERRIBLE MOUNTAIN 91 

anchor in limpid blue waters ; the cannon shot is answered by prolonged 
thunderclapping of mountain echoes. 

"We are anchored in St. Pierre, the quaintest, the queerest and the 
prettiest withal among the West India cities; all stone built and stone 
flagged, with very narrow streets, wooden awnings, iron balconies and 
peeked roofs of red tiles pierced by gabled dormers. Most of the build- 
ings are painted in a clear pale yellow tone." 

It was the fashion in Martinique to indulge the pleasant theory that 
the sinister mountain, overlooking the greater city of the island, had an 
added interest because it was a "thunder mountain" and had been en- 
gaged in mischief; that there was a certain charm in living so near a 
mass of matter that might convert the smiling landscape suddenly into a 
horrible chaos. There was something fascinating in the vague but sub- 
stantial opinion that there was an ever present danger giving a peculiar 
zest to life. The people, well accustomed to the trembling of the earth 
and the rumbling of the mountain, wanted very positive evidence of peril 
to move them to think of hastening away from their homes. They lived 
in an old town and it had never been destroyed, though often disturbed, 
and it was quite politic, therefore, for the Governor of the island to de- 
clare, after going to the mountain, which was giving out warning, that 
there was nothing very important likely to happen. He had directed Pro- 
fessor Landes, of the University of St. Pierre, to make an investigation 
of Mont Pelee, and the Professor went to the crater of the volcano, found 
the forces at work that would cause an eruption, telegraphed the Gov- 
ernor in cipher, and that gentleman was so accurate as to think and say, 
officially, that the destruction of the city would "not happen later than 
the 8th of May," the very day when St. Pierre was wiped out by floods 
of mud and clouds of fire. American correspondents on the ground state 
that the dispatch of Professor Landes predicting the end of the city is 
held a secret by the government. The popular thing with the business 
men of St. Pierre was to oppose the theory that there was danger from 
Mont Pelee. On the last day but one of St. Pierre there was heard by 



92 NAME 0F THE TERRIBLE MOUNTAIN 

the swarm of people in the market place a growl from the fiery giant. 
"a deep-toned jarred growl." The top of the mountain at the time was 
hidden in a white mist, and that seemed to comfort the people. But 
they were slightly alarmed when ashes, very fine and white, began to 
fall from the clouds on the brow of the mountain. The rumbling was 
not continued. A band of music had played on the night of May ist, on 
the plaza of St. Pierre, and the young people talked lightly of Old Pelee. 
There was a lawn party on that evening. The mist about the top of Pelee 
seemed to cling there, and there was a thunder storm over the mountains. 
the people noticing that the flashes of lightning were not from the crater 
close at hand. But there was a gradual growth of apprehension, and 
when a black column of smoke arose, something of fright — and such 
eyes as two thousand 3-ears ago saw the towering pine tree with branches 
of fire ascending and quivering from the crater of Vesuvius, are said on 
this occasion to have beheld a swelling figure of smoke, black as a pall ; 
and that piercing through the white shroud, it reared "billows of crape 
into the form of a great up-ended coffin." There was another growl from 
Pelee, grander and more savage than the first. This was Sunday morn- 
ing, and "a small river of hot black mud. touched here and there with 
red, was seen to come snaking down from out the mists screening Pe- 
lee's summit, to cascade over a hundred foot precipice." The hideous 
stream destroyed a factory and many lives, and so commenced the dread- 
ful desolation. 

The hand of the government appeared at this point. Fort de France 
is the seat of local authority, as it was the station of the French navy 
when France disputed with England supremacy on the seas. The gov- 
ernor got warning and went so far as to say that if Pelee destroyed St. 
Pierre, it should destroy him. He didn't want to have the grand and 
noisy old mountain officially branded as dangerous. That would be un- 
popular, and, therefore, he restrained himself from giving his august 
countenance up to a panic, but he got out of town. 

The correspondent of the Record-Herald, on the spot, gives this inci- 



NAME OF THE TERRIBLE MOUNTAIN 93 

dent of the utility under such circumstances of common sense as coolly 
measures the most sensational experiences : 

"Out in the bay was anchored an Italian vessel, a craft which had 
come in a few days before and which was to have awaited there instruc- 
tions from her Genoese owners. After the train of pebbles and sand 
and the stream of mud the captain went to his consul and notified him 
of his intention of immediately putting to sea. 

" T know nothing of Pelee,' the master said to the consul, 'but I 
have lived in Naples and I know Vesuvius.' 

" 'That man/ reflected the consul after the mariner had made a hur- 
ried exit from the consulate, 'apparently knows about volcanoes.' And 
within the hour the consul and his family were hastening to a place of 
safety." 

Letters written from Martinique twenty days subsequent to the dis- 
aster, say that "forty thousand lives of St. Pierre were blotted out 
quietly as one snuffs a candle." 

The morning of the last day of the city there was an unwonted si- 
lence. There was a profound public consciousness of danger. Pelee 
continued to smoke and emit clouds of ashes, but the wind sent the smoke 
and ashes away from the city, and while the clouds were seen from a 
great distance, and ashes fell on ships a hundred miles away, the people 
of St. Pierre, as the wind did not blow the news verified by ashes to 
them, were not aware of the portentous emission from the mountain. 
They had heard that the geologists had been on hand and surveyed Pe- 
lee, and there was a story that soldiers were being sent to take care of 
the people, and there was a misplaced confidence in the military power. 
The governor arrived, and gave assurances, and returned that night, 
May the /th, on the little steamer Topaz, and he did not succeed in 
perishing with his people. 

The French cruiser Suchet was to have arrived at St. Pierre on 
Thursday morning, the last before the day of doom. Her machinery was 
damaged to some slight extent, and she waited. When the steamer ar- 



94 NAME OF THE TERRIBLE MOUNTAIN 

rived the people were dead. The pity of it was the village of Caibet, 
with seven hundred people, with merely a high ridge between itself .and 
St. Pierre, was a perfectly safe place, but no one sought safety in that 
quarter. The top of the ridge was the dividing line between the total 
destruction by the flood of fire and the preservation of the grasses and 
palms in all their greenness. The rolling sea of fire had not passed over 
the ridge to involve Carbet. 

The United States consul was sitting on the veranda of his home, 
and a friend driving by in a buggy called to the consul and told him, "I 
am getting out, and you'd better get out of this." The consul said, 
"There is no need of anyone going away," and the man in the buggy 
reports himself to have retorted, as he whipped up his team, "It is better 
to be safe than sorry." There was a telephone between Fort de France 
and St. Pierre, and one in the Fort at 7 155, May the 8th, heard a shriek 
over the 'phone, and heard no more. That was the hour and the minute 
when the city was smitten by fire that consumed the lives of its inhab- 
itants. 

It seems that through forces not altogether accountable a prodigious 
burst of flaming gas arose from the crater of Pelee and was carried 
directly upon the city itself, and in the twinkling of an eye the city was 
a ruin in the solitude — St. Pierre as dead as Pompeii. People died in 
their wrecked homes, "sealed forever under tons of boiling mud, ava- 
lanches of scoria, and a hurricane of volcano dust." 

The correspondent of the Record-Herald gives a most touching story 
of the fate of United States Consul Prentis and his wife and two daugh- 
ters. Mr. Prentis and Ayme, stationed at Guadeloupe, had talked of 
exchanging their places, as each thought better of that which the other 
had. It became the sad duty of Mr. Ayme to penetrate to the house 
occupied by the dead consul, and "in the ruins of the structure between 
what was formerly Mr. Prentis' consular office and the apartment used 
as his family dining-room, were uncovered what are believed to be the 
remains of the consul and his wife. Mr. Ayme carefully noted the loca- 



NAME OF THE TERRIBLE MOUNTAIN 95 

■tion and then consulted with the captain of the U. S. S. Cincinnati. Two 
metallic caskets were brought by the cruiser to receive the bodies." 

While the identification could not be absolute, there is reason to 
believe there is authenticity. 

Mr. Sherman Morse, correspondent of the Herald of New York and 
Chicago, explains that the unparalleled disaster to St. Pierre — according 
to the judgment of the officers of the cruiser Cincinnati, who made an 
investigation of the ruins, that a crater was opened in the side of the 
volcano nearest the city, and from this vent issued the gas that the 
breeze carried straight over St. Pierre ; and in support of this it is said : 

"The lines of demarcation of the gaseous river are as plain as 
though they had been drawn by a ruler laid down the slope, narrowing 
at the mountain's top to open fan-shaped as it neared the ocean, and 
including every section of the doomed city within its deadly radius. 
Heavier than the air, it seemed to have rolled down the long sweep of 
mountain side to bank itself many hundreds of feet deep over spires and 
roofs. 

"The very few eye-witnesses who are left agree that the flame flashed 
from mountain to city, from which fact it is argued that the gas was 
ignited near its vent by a flash of the lightning that is almost continu- 
ously playing around Pelee's crest. 

"This theory, if correct, explains much that would otherwise be hard 
to comprehend. It would explain why the ruined walls of the city are 
tumbled in every conceivable direction, some falling toward the moun- 
tain, some toward the sea. Some reeled toward the north side of the 
basin, some staggered toward the south. It looked as though there had 
been a thousand simultaneous but separate explosions." 

The intensity of the heat of the deadly volume of gas may be esti- 
mated from the fact that it requires 2,800 degrees of heat to fuse 
wrought iron, and that irons in the center of a green park were fused 
and twisted out of shape. The specification is, that the wrought iron 
pipes of cast-iron gargoyles, four hundred feet distant from any build- 



96 NAME OF THE TERBIBLE MOUNTAIN 

ing, in the center of the park, were few. The people were killed by suffo- 
cation in their houses or fields where they were at work, or on the road, 
some sitting upright in chairs, in attitudes showing that death must have 
been instantaneous. 

The gas capable of such a sweep of fire and a heat so frightful as to 
consume everything before it, with a fatality as indiscriminate and uni- 
versal as that in the depths of the coal mines, when there is an explosion, 
seems never before to have been identified in the history of volcanoes. 
It is not surprising that such a gas should exist to be developed undei 
such circumstances, with consequences appalling as are recorded here. 
And the problem of the solution of this mystery is one well worthy in- 
vestigation by scientific processes, else there is a new terror entered 
into the experiences of mankind. The mountain seems to have enter- 
tained a sight seer, one who was engaged in investigation when the ex- 
plosion took place, and by extreme exertion he lived to give this account 
of himself : 

"I heard a violent noise within the mountain, and at a spot about a 
quarter of a mile off the place where I stood the mountain split; and 
with much noise from this new mouth a fountain of liquid fire shot up 
many feet high, and then, like a torrent, rolled on directly toward us. 
The earth shook at the same time that a volley of pumice stones fell thick 
upon us. In an instant clouds of black smoke and ashes caused almost 
total darkness; the explosions from the top of the mountain were much 
louder than any thunder I ever heard, and the smell of the sulphur was 
offensive. My guide, alarmed, took to his heels, and I must confess that 
I was not at my ease; I followed close, and we ran nearly three miles 
without stopping. As the earth continued to shake under our feet I was 
apprehensive of the opening of a fresh mouth, which might cut off our 
retreat. I also feared that the violent explosions might detach some of 
the rocks off the mountain of Somma, under which we were obliged to 
pass; besides the pumice stones, falling upon us like hail, were of such 
a size as to cause disagreeable sensations." 



NAME OF THE TERRIBLE MOUNTAIN 97 

Professor Robert T. Hill, United States Government Geologist, and 
head of the expedition sent by the National Geographical Society, ar- 
rived at Fort de France May the 26th, from a courageous and extreme- 
ly intelligent investigation of the volcanic activity in Martinique. He 
chartered a steamer and examined the coast to the extreme northern end 
of the island, making many landings. 

After landing at Le Precheur, five miles north of St. Pierre, he 
walked through an area of active vulcanism to the latter place and made 
a minute examination of the various phenomena disclosed. 

Professor Hill is the first and only man who has set foot in the area 
of craters, fissures, and fumaroles, and, because of his high position as 
a scientist, his story is valuable. 

In addition to his work of investigation the professor rescued in his 
steamer many poor people of Le Precheur, who had ventured back after 
deserting their homes and found themselves in awful danger. He re- 
ports as follows : 

"The zone of the catastrophe in Martinique forms an elongated oval, 
containing on land about eight square miles of destruction. This oval 
is partly over the sea. The land part is bounded by lines running from 
Le Precheur to the peak of Mont Pelee, thence curving around to Car- 
bet. 

"There were three well-marked zones. First, a center of annihilation, 
in which all life, vegetable and animal, was utterly destroyed, the greater 
northern part of St. Pierre was in this zone ; second, a zone of singeing, 
blistering flame, which also was fatal to all life, killing all men and ani- 
mals, burning the leaves on the trees, and scorching, but not utterly 
destroying, the trees themselves; third, a large outer, non-destructive 
zone of ashes, wherein some vegetation was injured. 

"The focus of annihilation was the new crater midway between the 
sea and the peak of Mont Pelee, where now exists a new area of active 
vulcanism, with hundreds of fumaroles or miniature volcanoes. The 



98 NAME OF THE TERRIBLE MOUNTAIN 

new crater is now vomiting black, hot mud, which is falling into the sea. 
Both craters, the old and the new, are active. 

"Mushroom-shaped steam explosions constantly ascend from the old 
crater, while heavy ash-laden clouds float horizontally from the new 
crater. The old ejects steam, smoke, mud, pumice, and laplilli, but no 
molten lava. 

"The salient topography of the region is unaltered. The destruction 
of St. Pierre was due to the new crater. The explosion had great super- 
ficial force, acting in radial directions, as is evidenced by the dismount- 
ing and carrying for yards the guns in the battery, on the hill south of 
St. Pierre, and the statue of the Virgin in the same locality, and also by 
the condition of the ruined houses in St. Pierre. 

"According to the testimony of some persons there was an accom- 
panying flame. Others think the incandescent cinders and the force of 
their ejection were sufficient to cause the destruction. This must be 
investigated. I am now following the nature of this." 

As the Herald boat ran from San Juan, Puerto Rico, on the 23d of 
May, the sail was for fifty miles through a heavy cloud of ashes. She 
did not put in at St. Pierre because the danger would have been great 
and the utility very slight if not imperceptible. When the boat arrived 
at Fort de France, her decks were deeply coated with ashes. 

Lieutenant McCormick arrived at Castries, St. Lucia, on the night 
of May 22d, and on the Potomac were the scientists who went to Mar- 
tinique on the Dixie dispatched by the national authorities. 

The second series of eruptions of Mont Pelee changed the entire as- 
pect of the ruins of St. Pierre. Lava, effacing all landmarks, had en- 
tombed the entire city, and the appearance of it was that it might have 
been buried for hundreds of years. The situation greatly interfered 
with the rapidity of critical investigation. A huge rent could be seen 
from the deck of the Potomac on the south slope of Mont Pelee, and the 
lava flowed incessantly over the hills to the west and into the sea. Some 
time after Pelee resumed eruptions, after a few days omitting to do great 



NAME OF THE TEREIBLE MOUNTAIN 99 

violence, the mountain was the center of an electric storm. Discharges 
of terrific electric force were almost continuous, the indication of the 
sound being that there were astounding energies stored. Two steamers 
sailed with refugees from Fort de France, Martinique, May 22d, for 
West Indian and South American ports, and were crowded to the limit 
of safety, at least; and the departure of these vessels was attended by 
demonstrations of the frantic earnestness of the people to abandon the 
island. There were crowds on the wharves weeping because they had 
been unable to get away. The fears of another eruption prevailed with 
great intensity among the people, and the "poorer classes," which means 
especially the colored people who could not sail away, were making for 
the southern part of the island that they might be as remote as practica- 
ble from the volcano. 

Soufriere, the sulphur pit, the volcano of St. Vincent, was reported 
from Kingston, by way of London, May 23d, as extremely active : 

"Lava is streaming into the sea, while clouds of sulphurous smoke, 
extending for miles, obscured the land and compelled us to steam sea- 
ward, at full speed. We saw another crater, between La Soufriere and 
Chateau Belair, emitting stones, and also smaller vents elsewhere. 

"The food of the peasantry is ruined and everywhere the island is 
blighted for fruit and vegetables. Cattle are being shipped to other 
islands for pasturage. The laborers in the sugar districts have killed 
their horses for food, and are now dying from diseases of the intestines 
caused by the lava dust." 

A cable from Fort de France, May 28th, announced the return of 
Professor Hill, United States Government Geologist, who returned late 
the evening of that day from his extended and dangerous trip to the 
volcano. He stated that in several instances the activity of Mont Pelee 
was proceeding along lines unprecedented in the annals of science. He 
averred that extreme danger still hovered over Martinique and that in 
view of the extraordinary conditions prevailing it was impossible to 



100 NAME OF THE TERRIBLE MOUNTAIN 

prophesy what the volcano might do next or when the subterranean 
forces might take new and devastating forms. 

While a rescuing party was being organized to proceed by land to 
discover the whereabouts of George Kennan, the American author who 
was reported killed, Ferdinand Gere, a wealthy land proprietor of Mar- 
tinique, arrived and announced that Mr. Kennan and his party were safe 
on a plantation at the north end of the island. 

Professor Hill gave a detailed story of his examination of the district 
through which he passed. He left Fort de France at i o'clock Monday 
afternoon. He was accompanied by Mr. Cavanaugh, an army officer 
from the British island of Trinidad, and a boy named Joe, who was to 
act as interpreter. The party set out on horseback and took the direct 
north road for Morne Rouge. 

Between the hamlets of Deux Choux and Fonds St. Denis the party 
entered upon the outer edge of the zone of ashes. Except for occasional 
patches all the country to this point was green. Upon reaching the 
Raibaud plantation, one mile southwest of St. Pierre, the explorers met 
the clear line of demarcation of the zone of flame and destruction, al- 
though not of annihilation. 

Monday night was spent in a deserted house at Fonds St. Denis, 
from which Professor Hill witnessed and studied the volcanic eruption of 
that night. At this point the horses of the party became exhausted. 

Early the next morning Professor Hill pushed on to Mont Parnasse, 
where several people were killed in the eruption of May 8. He encoun- 
tered no human beings, but he did meet a number of abandoned cattle, 
which tried to follow him. 

From Mont Parnasse the explorer proceeded to Morne Rouge, where 
he succeeded in getting a number of important photographs. He found 
that a close approach to Mont Pelee was impossible, and as his actual 
position was dangerous he started back in a southerly direction. 

At Champs Flore Professor Hill's horse gave out completely and he 
secured the services of native guides, who led him by wild mountain 



NAME OF THE TERRIBLE MOUNTAIN 103 

paths back to Fonds St. Denis and Deoux Choux. Tuesday night was 
spent at the latter place. 

From this point Professor Hill sent a messenger into Fort de France 
with a request that a carriage be sent for him. Wednesday morning the 
professor left Deux Choux and walked to within fifteen kilometers of 
Fort de France, where he borrowed an old horse from a negro and con- 
tinued his way mounted. The carriage met him five kilometers from 
Fort de France and brought him back to town, where he arrived at n 
o'clock this morning. 

Professor Hill heard the explosion of this morning while on his way 
into Fort de France, and he says a cloud of black smoke at a great height 
was drifting slowly to the southeast. 

Speaking personally of his expedition to Mont Pelee, Professor Hill 
said : "My attempt to examine the crater of Mont Pelee has been futile. 
I succeeded, however, in getting very close to Morne Rouge. At 7 
o'clock Monday night I witnessed, from a point near the ruins of St. 
Pierre, a frightful explosion from Mont Pelee and noted the accompany- 
ing phenomena. 

"While these eruptions continue no sane man should attempt to 
ascend the crater of the volcano. Following the salvos of detonations 
from the mountain gigantic mushroom-shaped columns of smoke and 
cinders ascended into the clear, starlit sky and then spread in a vast, black 
sheet to the south and directly over my head. 

"Through this sheet, which extended a distance of ten miles from 
the crater, vivid and awful lightning bolts flashed with alarming fre- 
quency. They followed distinct paths of ignition, but were different 
from lightning in that the bolts were horizontal and not perpendicular. 

"This is indisputable evidence of the explosive oxidation of the gases 
after they left the crater. This is a most important observation and ex- 
plains in part the awful catastrophe. This phenomenon is entirely new 
in volcanic history. 

"I took many photographs, but do not hesitate to acknowledge that 



104 NAME OF THE TERRIBLE MOUNTAIN 

I was terrified. But I was not the only person so frightened. Two news- 
paper correspondents who were close to Morne Rouge some hours before 
me became scared, ran three miles down the mountain and hastened into 
Fort de France. 

"The people on the north end of the island are terrified and are flee- 
ing with their cattle and effects. I spent Tuesday night in a house at 
Deux Choux with a crowd of 200 frightened refugees. 

"Nearly all the phenomena of these volcanic outbreaks are new to 
science, and many of them have not yet been explained. The volcano is 
still intensely active and I cannot make any predictions as to what it 
will do." 

The story as related by Ferdinand Clerc is also quite interesting. He 
says : 

"Mr. Kennan and his party have been with me. We got around the 
mountain and reached the new crater not far from Ajoupa Bouillon. 
We discovered that it had broken out at the very head of the River Fa- 
laise and about 200 yards from the high road. Our party rode directly 
to the edge of the crater, as it was then quiescent. 

"We saw that a great slice of the mountain had fallen, leaving ex- 
posed a perpendicular cliff. In this cliff were five huge tunnels which 
were not smoking. The crater is a great, sloping, oval depression, from 
which smoke issues as it does from the great crater, with the exception 
that here and there were a few ashes in the smoke. The River Falaise is 
uoiling hot and so muddy that one quart of water weighed four pounds. 
Volcanic stones of the nature of pumice float in this water. 

"Mr. Kennan witnessed the explosion of Monday night and was 
much interested in the phenomena. The explosion was accompanied at 
intervals by a bright light which lasted for half an hour at a time. This 
light was steady and illuminated the entire mountain top. Professor 
Hill says he did not see this light. I left Mr. Kennan and his party in 
good health and in safety. They seemed to be in no hurry to come back 
to Fort de France." 



NAME OF THE TERRIBLE MOUNTAIN 105 

The explosion of this morning was accompanied by an enormous col- 
umn of smoke, which rose fully three miles into the air, but which was 
largely hidden from the view of the people of Fort de France by a heavy 
cumulus. There was, consequently, no panic here. This column of 
smoke was seen from the British cruiser Indefatigable while she was 
at sea. 



> 



CHAPTER VII. 

WORLD-WIDE CHARITIES. 

The United States Led the Way in Official Action — Public 
Subscription and the Dispatch of Relief Ships — Presi- 
dent Roosevelt was First and Emperor William a Good 
Second. 

President Roosevelt did not wait for Congress to< act before begin- 
ning preparations for the dispatch of relief, feeling sure that such action 
would be prompt and favorable. Secretary Hay was called in and a 
plan of work mapped out, Mr. Hay being charged with the duty of 
acquainting Secretaries Root and Moody with the President's wishes. 
The Treasury Department was instructed to co-operate, and it is sup- 
posed that this will mean the employment of the revenue cutters and 
the medical officers of the marine hospital service. The War Depart- 
ment, with its well-organized supply departments, was regarded as in 
better position than any other institution to take charge of the relief 
measures except that it had no means of transportation, the Sedgwick, 
which is out of condition, being the only army transport on the Atlantic 
coast. Fortunately the navy had a handy ship in the Dixie, which 
arrived at New York recently from a training cruise. Having been a 
merchant freighter, she is admirably adapted to the service required 
of her now. 

Secretary Moody immediately telegraphed orders to Captain Berry, 
her commander, to ship army supplies to be offered him and to sail at 
the earliest possible moment for Martinique. He was authorized to 
extend relief to other islands if lie found any necessity for so doing. 
Navigation bureau officers estimated that she can be coaled and pro- 
visioned and got under way in a day or two. The scientific department 
of the government availed itself of the opportunity to send on the Dixie 

106 



WORLD-WIDE CHARITIES 109 

as passengers or observers two professors from the geological survey. 
A Harvard volcano specialist was also given passage. The United 
States steamship Buffalo, also a converted merchant freighter, was pre- 
pared as a relief ship if the Dixie should not suffice. 

Adjutant-General Corbin, Quartermaster-General Ludington, Com- 
missary-General Weston and Surgeon-General Sternberg were charged 
by Secretary Root with the arrangement of that part of the relief meas- 
ures pertaining to the War Department. Official orders were dictated 
for the guidance of the three supply departments, giving the scheme 
of distribution as follows : 

Three medical officers, with $5,000 worth of medical stores, etc.; 
one subsistence officer, with $70,000 in stores, consisting of rice, dried 
fish, sugar, coffee, tea, canned soups, condensed cream, salt, pepper and 
vinegar; one officer of the quartermaster's department, with $20,000 
worth of clothing supplies for men, women and children. 

Secretary Root indorsed the scheme as follows: 

"The above distribution is approved, and the purchases will be made 
accordingly, ready for shipment in case the pending bill for relief of 
Martinique becomes a law." 

The orders directed that these officers and stores be sent on the 
Dixie, to be distributed at such points as may be designated by the 
navy officer in command of the Dixie, under instructions given by the 
Secretary of the Navy. The medical officers were to render such medi- 
cal aid as might be in their power in addition to the distribution of 
medical supplies. 

General Weston, commissary, telegraphed immediately to Colonel 
Brainerd, the commissary officer at the New York depot, directing him 
to expend the allotment in the purchase of tea, coffee, sugar and the 
other foods agreed upon, and to see that these goods were loaded on 
the Dixie. Captain Gallagher, one of General Weston's most valued 
assistants, was selected to go to New York and proceed on the Dixie 
to Martinique. He was to be in complete charge of the distribution of 



110 WORLD-WIDE CHARITIES 

the stores, and a fund Of $5,000 was allotted to him for emergency 
expenses. 

The character of the President's instructions to the departments 
concerned in the relief work may be gathered from the text of the fol- 
lowing letter, which was delivered to Secretary Moody after the Presi- 
dent had seenr Consul Ayme's message : 

"The President directs me to express, to you his wish that your 
department go to the furthest limits of executive discretion for the 
rescue and relief of the afflicted islands in the Caribbean. 

"John- Hay." 

Rear Admiral Bradford, chief of: the bureau of equipment, submitted 
to Secretary Moody the following suggestion in regard to. the situation 
at Martinique: 

"It has occurred to this bureau that the refugees from the Island 
of Martinique may suffer from want of good water. Naturally the 
surface water will be strongly impregnated with sulphur and thus be 
unsuitable for drinking purposes. There is a good water barge at Key 
West with a capacity of 175,000 gallons, ready for immediate use. 
There also is one at* Norfolk, capable of 400,000 gallons, ready for 
immediate use. These may be towed td whatever locality is selected 
for a camp for the refugees at once*. They can be refilled at Kingston, 
Jamaica, or Cape Haitien, Hayti, where there is an abundance of good 
water." 

Prompt and generous was the response of the United States to the 
appeal for succor which came from the lava-strewn ruins of Martinique. 
All the machinery of the government was set in motion to hasten the 
departure of the relief ship with supplies and medicines. 

President Roosevelt took the keenest personal interest in the prepa- 
rations for extending a helping hand to the sufferers, and at his direc- 
tion the Dixie was made ready for the voyage and supplies ordered 
purchased tentatively even before Congress had voted the money to pay 
for them. The President had no doubt of the prompt and generous 



: WOELD-WIDE CHARITIES ils 

response of Congress, and he did not wish to lose a minute's time in 
dispatching our relief ship. 

When the Senate bill was taken up in the House Mr. Underwood, 
of Alabama, who had objected to its consideration and had succeeded 
in delaying action, made a brief speech, in which he explained his oppo- 
sition to the donation of public funds for such a purpose, insisting that 
private contributions should be relied upon for relief. General Grcs- 
venor insisted upon a roll call upon final passage of the bill, in order to 
place the opposition upon record. The bill was passed by a vote of 
196 td 9, the following Democrats being recorded in the negative : 

"Burgess of Texas. Clayton of Alabama, Gaines of Tennessee, Lan- 
ham of Texas, Moon of Tennessee, Snodgrass of Tennessee, Tate of 
Georgia, Underwood of Alabama, Williams of Mississippi." 

Trie bill was rushed to the Senate, where, on motion of Senator 
Fairbanks, the House amendment, doubling the amount and making 
$200,000 immediately available for distribution by the President in 
relief measures and directing the use of naval vessels in the work of 
succor, was agreed to, Senator Cullom making an explanation that the 
bill was passed without prejudice to the President's recommendations 
and intimating that if the appropriation prove insufficient it would be 
increased. 

The resolution, as adopted, was: 

"To enable the President of the United States to procure and dis- 
tribute among the suffering and destitute people of the islands of the 
French West Indies such provisions, clothing, medicines and other 
necessary articles and to take such other steps as he shall deem advis- 
able for the purpose of rescuing and succoring the people who are in 
peril and threatened with starvation, the sum of $200,000 is hereby 
appropriated. 

"In the execution of this act the President is requested to ask and 
obtain the approval of the French government, and he is hereby author- 



112 WORLD-WIDE CHARITIES 

ized to employ any vessels of the United States navy, and to charter 
and employ any other suitable steamships or vessels." 

President Roosevelt's message to Congress was as follows : 

"One of the greatest calamities in history has fallen upon our neigh- 
boring Island of Martinique. The consul of the United States has tele- 
graphed from Fort de France, under date of yesterday, that the disaster 
is complete; that the City of St. Pierre has ceased to exist, and that the 
American consul and his family have perished. He is informed that 
30,000 people have lost their lives, and that 50,000 are homeless and 
hungry; that there is urgent need of all kinds of provisions, and that 
the visit of vessels for the work of supply and rescue is imperatively 
required. 

"The government of France, while expressing their thanks for the 
marks of sympathy which have reached them from America, inform us 
that Fort de France and the entire Island of Martinique are still threat- 
ened. They therefore request that, for the purpose of rescuing the 
people who are in such deadly peril and threatened with starvation, the 
government of the United States may send as soon as possible the means 
of transporting them from the stricken island. 

"The Island of St. Vincent and perhaps others in that region are 
also seriously menaced by the calamity which has taken so appalling a 
form in Martinique. 

"I have directed the Departments of the Treasury, of War and of the 
Navy to take such measures for the relief of these stricken people as 
lies within the executive discretion." 

Following is the text of the cablegrams between Presidents Roose- 
velt and Loubet on the Martinique disaster : 

"Washington, May 10, 1902. His Excellency M. Emile Loubet, 
President of the French Republic, Paris : — I pray your excellency to 
accept the profound sympathy of the American people in the appalling 
calamity which has come upon the people of Mantinique. 

"Theodore Roosevelt." 



WORLD-WIDE CHARITIES 113 

"Paris, May 1 1, 1902. President Roosevelt: — I thank your excel- 
lency for the expression of profound sympathy you have sent me in the 
name of the American people on the occasion of the awful catastrophe 
in Martinique. The French people will certainly join me in thanks to 
the American people. Emile Loubet." 

Wiesbaden, Province of Hesse- Nassau, Germany, May 12. — Em- 
peror William has telegraphed to President Loubet in French as follows : 

"Profoundly moved by the news of the terrible catastrophe which 
has just overtaken St. Pierre, and which has cost the lives of nearly as 
many persons as perished at Pompeii, I hasten to offer France my most 
sincere sympathy. May the Almighty comfort the hearts of those who 
weep for their irreparable losses. My ambassadors will remit to your 
excellency the sum of 10,000 marks in my behalf, as a contribution for 
the relief of the afflicted." 

President Loubet replied : 

"Am greatly touched by the mark of sympathy which, in this terri- 
ble misfortune that has fallen on France, your majesty has deigned to 
convey to me. I beg you to accept my warm thanks, and also the grati- 
tude of the victims whom you propose to succor." 

Paris, May 12. — King Edward has sent 25,000 francs as his contri- 
bution to the fund being raised for the relief of the sufferers from the 
Martinique disaster. 

The czar has telegraphed to President Loubet expressing the sincere 
sympathy of himself and the czarina, who share with France the sorrow 
caused by the terrible West Indian catastrophe.- 

Rome, May 12. — The pope to-day summoned the French ambassa- 
dor, M. Nisard, to the Vatican and expressed to him his keen sorrow on 
hearing of the St. Pierre disaster. The pontiff requested that he be 
kept informed regarding the details of the volcanic outbreak. 

London, May 12. — The colonial office received the following dis- 
patch this afternoon from Administrator Bell, of the Island of Domin- 
ica, British West Indies: 



114 WORLD-WIDE CHARITIES 

"Tlie Martinique catastrophe appears to be even more terrible than 
at first reported. Refugees arriving here this morning say that new 
craters are open in many directions ; that rivers are overflowing and that 
large areas in the north of the island are submerged. Other districts are 
crowded with survivors. Almost total darkness continues. I do net 
believe Guadeloupe can adequately relieve the stupendous distress." 

It is a matter for congratulation that the people of the United States 
were first, through the President and Congress and the people at large, 
to make such liberal contributions for the relief of sufferers, that funds 
were banked in part, and the Secretary to the President sent this mes- 
sage: 

"Washington, May 19. — Graeme Stewart, Chicago: On Satur- 
day immediately after receiving Consul Ayme's dispatch the President 
directed the Secretaries of War and Navy to inquire and report as to 
the true condition of affairs in Martinique and St. Vincent. These 
reports will be made public as soon as received. All the supplies and 
all the money subscribed hitherto have been urgently needed, but until 
further information is received it is deemed best that the receipt of sub- 
scriptions be suspended. George B. Cortelyou, Secretary." 

Still the amount of the relief fund continued to flow. 

Washington, D. C, May 19. — Secretary Hay to-day received the 
following cablegram from United States Consul S. A. MacAllister at 
Barbados, West Indies, dated to-day : 

"Sixteen hundred deaths at St. Vincent ; 4,000 destitute. Immediate 
wants supplied. Aid needed for six months. This authentic." 

The Navy Department received the following dispatch from Com- 
mander McLean of the Cincinnati : 

"Fort de France, May 19. — Water barge not needed. Ashes and 
volcanic dust falling thickly here. Now like thick fog; decks covered." 

The Potomac is reported to have reached St. Lucia yesterday. 

The following statement was given out at the White House to-day : 

"On Saturday, immediately on receiving Consul Ayme's dispatch 



WORLD-WIDE CHARITIES 115 

the President directed the Secretaries of War and Navy to inquire and 
report as to the true condition of affairs in Martinique and St. Vincent. 
These reports will be made public as soon as received. All the supplies 
and all the money subscribed hitherto have been urgently needed, but 
until further information is received it is deemed best that the receipt of 
subscriptions be suspended. 

And this was the news of the next day : 

Kingstown, St. Vincent, May 19. — Evidence of the formation of 
new craters, taken in connection with the fact that the volcano of La 
Soufriere continues to vomit up an uninterrupted stream of lava and 
clouds of steaming vapor, leads to the belief that this vent to the earth's 
boiling interior will never again become quiescent. 

It is conceded that all the region within miles of the mountain's 
summit is to be rendered uninhabitable. 

Jets of steam rise from the earth at various points on surrounding 
plantations, the ground is cracked and seamed with great fissures in 
every direction and the soil is so hot that explorers cannot approach 
the base of the volcano. 

One of the new craters has been formed on the windward side of 
the mountain. 

Paris, May 19. — Hot cinders belched out of Mont Pelee are being 
strewn in great quantities over the southern portion of the Island of 
Martinique to-day, according to official dispatches to M. Decrais, the 
French colonial minister, from Governor L'Huerre of Mantinique. The 
wind has shifted since the volcano hurled its first blast o>f doom on the 
City of St. Pierre. Already the northern part of the island is a dreary 
waste, the once luxuriant foliage lying buried under great drifts of 
lava or a thick carpet of ashes. Now the wind is whirling the devas- 
tating product of Mont Pelee's continued eruption over and down 
upon the City of Fort de France and all the surrounding country. 

Within the last two days Mont Pelee's fury has increased and the 
refugees at Fort de France, as well as the residents and those from 



116 WORLD-WIDE CHARITIES 

abroad, who are dispensing supplies that are now on hand in sufficient 
quantity to meet all needs, are experiencing the same conditions that 
prevailed in the City of St. Pierre five days before the deluge of fire 
blotted out the lives of the entire population. 

Though it is feared that the present showers of ashes and cinders 
will blight all vegetation in the southern part of the island and make it 
wholly uninhabitable, the people do not expect any such visitation as 
overwhelmed St. Pierre. Violent explosions, however, have been heard 
at Le Carbet and these may presage another death-dealing eruption. 

Governor L'Huerre also cables that there is no likelihood of riots in 
the northern part of the island. Though the remaining inhabitants are 
without work, they are peaceable, and will not start disorder unless 
driven to it by the pangs of hunger and the fear of starvation. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

COINCIDENCES AND CONTRASTS 

Between the Caribbean Sea Islands and the Mississippi Valley 
Earthquakes and Agitations — The Greater of All the 
Quakes of the Earth — The Marvels of the New Madrid. 

The recent disaster from the presence of a volcano of Martinique — 
the birthplace of Josephine — is the third that has been experienced, and 
much the most severe. Indeed, it will stand out incomparable, not that 
the forces exerted exceeded all precedents, but the total annihilation 
of a city and the suffocation of all the people, with the exception of a few 
stragglers, surpasses precedents in the annihilation of tens of thousands 
of persons. St. Vincent has had the repute of being more intense than 
any other of the West Indies. It is the smaller of the volcanic islands, 
and was distinguished by an eruption in 1812, March 20, that made 
an impression upon the traditions of the people. This island has a 
sulphur pit — "Soufriere" — and her volcano is "Morne Garon"; height, 
five thousand feet. It is famous for a lake in the old crater which is 
very deep, and the lava breaks through the side of the mountain. In 
the eruption of 18 12 there was a savage shaking of Venezuela, famous 
for the overthrow of the city of Caracas, with the loss of people exceed- 
ing ten thousand. This disaster holds a place, not only in public report, 
but authentic history. The island of Martinique is purely volcanic, 
about one-fourth the size of Long Island, area three hundred and eighty- 
five square miles, with six volcanic peaks. The height of the taller, 
Pelee, is 4,438 feet, and its situation is in the northwest corner of the 
island. 

The year of the greater agitations of the earth, in the central region 
of the valley of the Mississippi, was 181 1, but they were noted earlier and 

119 



120 COINCIDENCES AND CONTRASTS 

later, especially in 1812 — the year of the most formidable volcanic erup- 
tions in the islands Martinique and St. Vincent — until the recent frightful 
energies of the fiery mountains in shaking the earth and discharging 
mud, stones and vapor, in quantities and with a fury unparalleled. 
Kaskaskia, in the territory of Illinois, was shocked at 3 a. m., January 8, 
1795. The Niagara Falls had a shake at 6 a. m. on Christmas Day, 
1795. The "site" of Chicago had a considerable shaking August 24, 
1804, at ten minutes past two. The Atlantic Monthly of November, 
1869, says of the site of Chicago incident : "It seems to have been quite 
a strong shock, though we have no accurate description of it. It was 
felt as far east as Fort Wayne, in Indiana, nearly two hundred miles 
distant. As with the preceding shocks, the impression left upon the 
minds of the observers was that it came from the west." 

On the night of the 16th of November, 181 1, the "Atlantic" says of 
earthquakes of the western United States, there occurred "a great and 
long-continued earthquake, which shook a larger area than any known 
shock except the Lisbon convulsion of 1755, and which in intensity was 
probably not surpassed by the movements which produced that great 
calamity. The thinly-peopled condition of the region along the banks 
of the Mississippi, which precluded this great earthquake from produc- 
ing any great loss of human life, has also made our accounts of the 
phenomena very imperfect. This latter result is the more to be re- 
gretted, inasmuch as there can be no doubt that many of the events of 
that convulsion were without parallel in the history of earthquake shocks. 
The valleys of the great rivers of the world, at least the parts immediately 
adjacent to their banks, are rarely the seats of earthquake shocks of 
great severity. The Amazons, the Nile, the great rivers of Asia, even 
the Danube, the Po, and the Rhone, of Europe, have been very slightly 
affected by earthquake shocks. The course of a great river like the 
Mississippi must be much affected by a severe earthquake. Without the 
intervention of external disturbances the stream is constantly wandering 
over the plain through which its varying channel is cut, A slight acci- 



COINCIDENCES AND CONTRASTS 121 

dent, such as the sinking of a wreck or the lodging of a few sticks of 
floating timber, may so disturb the regular system of curves in which the 
water flows, that the position of the banks in its course for miles below 
the point of disturbance will have to be changed before the equilibrium 
is restored. The sedimentary matter deposited by the overflows of the 
stream — which in the case of the Mississippi constitutes the great 
accumulation, from ten to one hundred miles wide and many hundred 
feet deep, through which the stream cuts its inconstant course — is not a 
compact mass, but in its structure frequently as loose and incoherent as 
an artificial filling. The settling which necessarily takes place when 
this matter is consolidated by sudden and violent agitations of the mass 
must greatly affect both the surface of the deposit and the course of the 
river." 

The children born in the early years of the nineteenth century, in 
the valley of the Mississippi, throughout their lives remembered and 
referred to, as if the events had some occult association, the "last war 
with England and the New Madrid earthquakes." No structure ever 
built by human hands for the habitation of the human race were better 
calculated to resist earthquakes than the original log cabins, built as pens, 
with the logs fitted to each other firmly at the corners by chopping 
notches and hewing the- ends of the logs sharply so that each was securely 
locked in its place. A log house of that type might be swallowed up in 
a fissure, but it could not be rattled down. 

We quote again the very intelligent article of the 'Atlantic" : 
"Owing to the fact that the region of the greatest observed violence 
was in the country immediately about the village of New Madrid, on 
the west bank of the Mississippi, about fifty miles below the mouth of the 
Ohio, this earthquake is commonly known is history as the New Madrid 
shock; but the evidence leads us to suppose that the true center of the 
shock was farther to the west. The first shocks were evidently not 
vertical at New Madrid, but seemed to come from some point beyond 
the line of the most western settlements. The Indians described even 



122 COINCIDENCES AND CONTRASTS 

more terrible effects of the convulsion in the region between the Missis- 
sippi and the great plains, — forests overthrown, rocks split asunder, and 
other indications of great violence, — than were observed at any place 
near the river. Everywhere the first movements seemed to come from 
the west, so that we are obliged to refer the origin of this earthquake, 
as that of many other earthquakes of the same area, to some center of 
disturbance lying between the Mississippi River and the Rocky Moun- 
tains. Now that population is spreading over all that region, we shall 
doubtless yet know, possibly by sad experiences, the true seat of the 
several disturbances of which we have evidently observed only the west- 
ward prolongations. 

"The first movements of the shock of 1811 were observed by parties 
of travelers on the Mississippi River; it occurred at about 2 A. M. and 
was exceedingly violent ; we are so fortunate as to have from the pen of 
an English traveler, Mr. Bradbury, a botanist of some celebrity, a clear 
account of the occurrences of that night and the several succeeding days 
during which his voyage towards New Orleans carried him through the 
disturbed region." 

We quote Mr. Bradbury, with the note of his point of observations. 
This traveler was sleeping in his boat, which was moored to the bank of 
a small island just above the point known as the Devil's Channel, near the 
Chickasaw Bluffs. This point is about one hundred and fifty miles below 
the village of New Madrid, and without the center of the shock : 

"In the night I was awakened by a most tremendous noise, accom- 
panied by an agitation of the boat so violent that it appeared to be in 
danger of upsetting. Before I could quit the bed, or rather skin, upon 
which I lay, the four men who slept in the other cabin rushed in and 
cried out in the greatest terror, 'O mon Dieu ; Monsieur Bradbury, qu'est 
ce qu'il y a!' I passed them with some difficulty, and ran to the door 
of the cabin, where I could distinctly see the river as if agitated by a 
storm, and although the noise was inconceivably loud and terrific, I could 
distinctly hear the crash of falling trees and the screaming of wild fowl 



COINCIDENCES AND CONTRASTS 125 

on the river, but found that the boat was still safe at her moorings. I 
was followed out by the men and the patron, still in accents of terror 
inquiring what it was. I tried to calm them by saying 'Restez-vous tran- 
quils; c'est un tremblement de terre!' which they did not seem to under- 
stand. By the time we could get to our fire, which was on a large flag 
in the stern of our boat, the shock had ceased, but immediately the 
perpendicular banks, both above and below us, began to fall into the 
river in such vast masses as nearly to sink our boat by the swell they 
occasioned, and our patron, who seemed even more terrified than the 
men, began to cry out, 'O mon Dieu ! nous perirons !' I wished to consult 
with him as to what we could do to preserve ourselves and the boat, but 
could get no answer except, 'O mon Dieu ! nous perirons !' and 'Allons 
a terre ! allons a terre !' As I found Mr. Bridge the only one who seemed 
to have retained any presence of mind, we consulted together and agreed 
to send two men with a candle up the bank in order to examine if it 
had separated from the island, a circumstance that we suspected from 
hearing the snapping of the limbs of some drift trees which were 
deposited betwixt the margin of the river and the summit of the bank. 
The men on arriving at the edge of the river cried out, 'Venez a terre ! 
Venez a terre !' and told us there was a chasm formed already, so wide 
that it would be difficult to pass it to attain firm ground. Immedi- 
ately after the shock we noticed the time, and found it was near two 
o'clock. It was now nearly half past, and I determined to go ashore 
myself, after securing some papers and money, and was employed in 
taking them out of my trunks, when another shock came on, terrible, but 
not equal to the first. Mortin, our patron, called out from the island, 
'Monsieur Bradbury, sauvez-vous ! sauvez-vous !' I went ashore and 
found the chasm really frightful ; it was not less than four feet in width ; 
besides, the banks had sunk at least two feet. I took the candle and 
examined to determine its length, and concluded that it could not be 
less than eighty yards, and where it terminated the banks had fallen into 
the river. I now saw clearly that our lives had been saved by mooring 



12G COINCIDENCES AND CONTRASTS 

to a sloping bank. Before we had completed our fire we had two more 
shocks, and they occurred during the whole night at intervals of from six 
to ten minutes, but slight in comparison to the first and second. I had 
already noticed that the sound which was heard at the time of every 
shock always preceded it by about a second, and that it always pro- 
ceeded from the same point and went off in an opposite direction. I now 
found that the shock came from a little northward of east and pro- 
ceeded to the westward. At daylight we had counted twenty-seven 
shocks during our stay on the island, but still found the chasm so that it 
could be passed. The river was covered with drift-timber, and had risen 
considerably, but our boat was still safe. Whilst we were waiting till 
the light became sufficient for us to embark, two canoes floated down the 
river, in one of which we could perceive some Indian corn and some 
clothes. We considered this a melancholy proof that some of the boats 
we passed the preceding day had perished. Our conjectures were after- 
wards confirmed, as three had been overwhelmed and all on board had 
perished. I gave orders to embark, and we all went on board. The 
men were in the act of loosening the fastenings when a shock occurred 
nearly equal to the first in violence. The men ran up the bank in order 
to save themselves on the island, but before they could get over the chasm 
a tree fell close by them and stopped their progress. The bank appeared 
to me to be rapidly moving into the river. 

"December 16, 1811. — At twenty- four minutes after two o'clock 
A. M., mean time, the first shock occurred. The motion was a quick 
oscillation of rocking, by most persons believed to be from west to east, 
by some south to north. Its continuance, taking the average of all the 
observations I could collect, was six or seven minutes. 

"January 3, 18 12. — A slight vibration between two and three o'clock 
A. M. 

"From the 3d to the 22d no vibration strong enough to attract general 
notice occurred, and it was generally believed in Cincinnati that the 
earth hereabouts was quiet. Others, however, assert that they felt many 



COINCIDENCES AND CONTRASTS 127 

slight agitations, which undoubtedly was the case, for during that period 
shocks were every day felt along the Mississippi. 

"23d. — About nine o'clock A. M. a great number of strong undula- 
tions occurred in quick succession. They continued four or five minutes, 
having two or three quick exacerbations during that time. An instru- 
ment, constructed on the principle of that used in Naples at the time of 
the memorable Calabrian earthquakes, marked the directions of the 
undulations from south-southeast to north-northwest. This earthquake 
was nearly equal to that which commenced the series, on the 16th ultimo. 

"27th. — At forty-five minutes past eight A. M. a solitary heave, as 
strong as any single throe on the 23rd. 

"March 3. — A few slight rockings about thirty minutes past six 
o'clock A. M. 

"10th. — A stronger vibration about eight o'clock P. M. 

"nth. — A slighter vibration between two and three o'clock A. M. 

"April 30. — A moderate agitation. 

"May 4. — About eleven o'clock A. M., a slight shock. 

"10th. — About eleven o'clock P. M., a slight shock. 

"June 25th. — In the night, a slight shock. 

"26th. — About eight o'clock A. M., a slight agitation. 

"September 15. — At the dawn of day, a moderate vibration. 

"December 22. — About three o'clock, another. 

"March 6, 181 3. — About 10 o'clock P. M., a very slight shock. 

"December 12. — Between ten and eleven o'clock A. M., another. 

"December 12. — Between three and four o'clock P. M., another." 

The scientists rank the New Madrid quakes with the Lisbon shock, 
and those convulsions stood alone as the greatest of which there was 
record until the Krakatoa outbreak, and that of Mont Pelee in May, 1902. 
It will be noticed that the Mississippi earthquake was coincident in the 
shakes of 181 2 with those in that year that occurred in Martinique. 

The grandfather of President Roosevelt, with his wife and children, 
passed through the New Madrid Mississippi River phenomena in the 



128 COINCIDENCES AND CONTRASTS 

first steamboat, the construction of which he had superintended at Pitts- 
burg. This was to ascertain whether the great rivers of the West 
offered openings for steamboat enterprise, and Mr. Roosevelt reported 
favorably and built and navigated the first boat. The "Western Journal," 
in 1850, said, in an article on "Submerged Lands of Mississippi" : 

"The earthquakes of 1811-12 proved very injurious and disastrous 
to the south of Missouri, and was felt far and wide. They changed the 
course of the streams and rivers, which occasioned the waters to spread 
in every direction, and made high land where it was low previous, and in 
elevated places sunk them — thus causing the rivers and streams to over- 
flow a great extent of the country. These earthquakes of 1811-12 are 
still remembered by many of our oldest settlers; when the whole land 
was moved and waved like the waves of the sea, and the majestic oak 
bent his head to the ground like a weed, and the terrible fact that the 
waters of the mighty Mississippi, opposite to the town of New Madrid, 
rolled up stream for ten miles, carrying on its bosom barks, keel-boats 
and every species of crafts, with a rapidity unknown, and causing 
destruction of property and life." 

The New Madrid shocks were felt as far as the shores of Lake 
Michigan and St. Clair on the north, to the Atlantic on the east, and the 
Gulf of Mexico on the south. Nothing is known of the distance west 
that the shocks were felt. The quaking came from the far west. 



CHAPTER IX. 

SCIENCE TO THE FRONT. 

Extraordinary Interest Taken in the Caribbean Catastrophe 
— Chicago University in the First Place — Science to 
Solve the Seismic Mystery. 

The world is stirred as never in all the historic ages by the out- 
break of volcanoes. Those of Martinique and St. Vincent have been on 
a stupendous scale, wonderfully picturesque, terrible and fatal, attended 
by conditions that deeply demand scientific investigation and conclu- 
sions. The enlightened people of the world should no longer be sub- 
jected to the perils of universal ignorance, and helpless believers in the 
horrors of an endless and always menacing mystery. 

This announcement came from Washington : 

"Washington, May 12. — The National Geographic Society is pre- 
paring to send an expedition to investigate the West India calamity. 
It is intended to send two geologists, one topographer, a geographer, a 
meteorologist and an explorer. 

"Professor R. T. Hill of the Geological Survey has been chosen as 
one of the geologists. The Weather Bureau will select the meteorolo- 
gist. Professor I. C. Russell of the University of Michigan, who sug- 
gested the expedition, has been invited to be of the party. Professor 
Alexander Graham Bell will go if he returns from Nova Scotia in time." 

The Chicago University was foremost in taking into intelligible 
consideration the uses of scientific investigation, and it was urged that 
for the investigation to be of any scientific value the Island of Mar- 
tinique must be reached quickly in order that live conditions might be 
studied, survivors talked with and other first-hand facts secured. 

T. C. Chamberlain, Professor of Geology in the University, was 

129 



130 SCIENCE TO THE FRONT 

responsible for the idea and he was enthusiastic over such an explora- 
tion. In speaking on the subject Professor Chamberlain said: 

"I am of the opinion that much valuable information could be ob- 
tained regarding the eruption if experts were to visit St. Pierre quickly. 
The Pelee disturbance, according to the reports, was unique in that the 
death list is among the highest on record while there was less lava 
emitted than by several of the other eruptions in history. It must have 
been a remarkable, explosion. The lava, instead of flowing down the 
sides of the mountain, evidently belched into the air and descended like 
rain upon those so unfortunate as to be caught under it. This is evi- 
denced by the reports that the bodies found were exposed, which would 
indicate that the people had been scorched, their bodies hit by the lava 
rather than drowned by it. This is an extraordinary feature and the 
one that gives this eruption an original place in volcanic explosions. 

"Scientists would not hope to obtain data that would enable them to 
forecast eruptions more than they have in the past. There is no way 
of knowing when one of these explosions is going to occur except when 
the so-called cinders and- ashes begin to issue forth. 

"There have been heavier losses of life than that in the Pelee erup- 
tion. Of course Pompeii recorded a greater death list, and in more 
modern times the explosion of Mount Krakatoa, on an island between 
Java and Sumatra, caused more persons to perish. Thousands have been 
killed also by the eruptions in Japan. 

"There appears to be no way of ascertaining whether a volcano is 
entirely extinct, or rather permanently out of business. The entire 
chain of the Antilles is one ridge of volcanoes. 

"The prime, fundamental cause of volcanic eruptions is acknowl- 
edged by all to be unknown. Of course there are theories, but nothing 
concrete or unquestionable. The immediate cause is a conduction of the 
high temperature of the deep interior toward the surface, so that the 
temperature of the subcrust may actually rise. This results in the melt- 



SCIENCE TO THE FRONT 131 

ing of the rock most easily melted. This material in the form of lava 
finds its way to the surface. 

"In the interest of science there ought to be no delay in sending an 
expedition to St. Pierre. Americans could reach there ahead of others, 
and thus ascertain the precise nature of the explosion. If the eruption 
continues some time all the earlier evidences of the explosion may be 
buried. If experts should go there at once they might still see active 
evidences of the disturbance. 

''The apathy of the people living in the vicinity of Pelee toward the 
impending disaster is not to be explained. Residents of volcanic dis- 
tricts become familiar with the craters and the eruptions occurring so 
far apart causes the natives to become calloused. Then the so-called 
cinders and ashes at times issue forth without being followed by the 
death-dealing lava. But this condition is rare. These are usually ad- 
vance agents of explosions. Of course there are no ashes or cinders. 
The stuff that is so called is rock material ground to* the appearance of 
cinders and ashes." 

Immediately after the eruption of Mount Krakatoa the Royal So- 
ciety of England sent an expedition to investigate the explosion, and 
the results are embodied in a large printed volume. At the time of the 
Charleston earthquake the United States Geological Survey lost no time 
in sending an investigating party to the scene, and much valuable infor- 
mation was secured regarding the nature of the seismic disturbance. 

James F. Kemp, A. B. E. M., of Columbia University, contributes 
to the public information a very clear statement of the cause of volca- 
noes, such as have desolated in the May days of 1902, two beautiful 
Caribbean islands. He is authority on the formation of the foundation 
of Vesuvius, as shown by deep borings. He says : 

"The lowest stratum is limestone of undetermined thickness. The 
volcano occasionally casts out blocks of it borne aloft from below. Next 
above this is 150 feet of sandstone; then 700 feet of calcareous sand- 
stone. On the top of the last-named (first as a submarine vent and 



132 SCIENCE TO THE FRONT 

apparently in about 600 feet of water) the young volcano built up a 
great layer of dust and fragments 600 feet thick. Throughout this 
material are fouiid marine shells. When the 600 feet had been accumu- 
lated the vent had risen above the water and was able to construct the 
old crater known to the ancients. But before human records begin the 
activity ceased and at 700 B. C. the cone was cold and dead." 

The historical outbreaks followed. The heat of the earth increases 
at known rates and the average is about sixty feet of descent for an 
increase of one degree Fahrenheit and carry it out for twenty-five miles, 
we reach a temperature of 2,200 degrees, which is just about that of 
ordinary molten lava. 

"It does not follow that the earth is a crust with liquid fire within, 
for astronomers and mathematicians remind the geologists that the 
earth is a rapidly rotating body which is subject to the deforming effects 
of centrifugal force and to the attractions of the moon and other heav- 
enly bodies "which are believed to cause the oceanic tides. They make 
the point that the earth behaves like a body as rigid as steel." 

Professor Shales, of Harvard, says: 

"Volcanic outbreaks are merely the explosion of steam under high 
pressure, steam which is bound in rocks buried underneath the surface 
of the earth and there subjected to such tremendous heat that when the 
conditions are right its pent-up energy breaks forth and it shatters its 
stone prison walls into dust. 

"The common belief is that the water enters the rocks during the 
crystallization period and that these rocks through the natural action 
of the rivers and streams become deposited in the bottom of the ocean. 
Here they lay for ages, becoming buried deeper and deeper under masses 
of like sediment which are constantly being washed down upon them 
from above. This process is called the blanketing process. 

"Each additional layer of sediment, while not raising the level of 
the sea bottom, buries the first layers just so much deeper and adds to 
their temperature just as does the laying of extra blankets on a bed. 



SCIENCE TO THE FRONT 133 

When the first layer has reached a depth of a few thousand feet the 
rocks which contain the water of crystallization are subjected to a ter- 
rific heat. This heat generates steam which is held in a state of frightful 
tension in its rocky prison. 

"It is at these moments that volcanic eruptions occur. The rocks 
containing the water are blown into dust, which sometimes is carried 
so high as to escape the power of the earth's attraction and float by 
itself through space. If the explosions have occurred lava pours forth. 
This is merely melted rock which overflows like water from a boiling 
kettle, but the explosion always precedes the flow." 

Professor Kemp says: "The distribution of volcanoes is evidently 
along great lines of upheaval in the earth, and they and earthquakes 
are connected with fractures which penetrate the crust. Some force is, 
however, necessary to bring the lava to the surface. If the part of the 
earth which is one side of a great fracture sinks, it may force the lava in 
the underlying reservoirs to rise through the fissures, and we are re- 
minded of the reports which state that the sea bottom has sunk off St. 
Vincent. Gravity is thus the propulsive force." 

The professors say of the water converted into steam, that the vapor 
is not sea water or any other form of surface water which percolates 
downward, but it is regarded by our most reliable observers as having 
been in the rocks from the time in which they first became constituents 
of the earth. 

A great many theories have been advanced to account for earthquakes 
and volcanoes since the recent dreadful catastrophe at Martinique. 

The theory I have to offer, though original, is not altogether new. 
Some fourteen years ago it was published in the Kentucky Educational 
Journal and the Louisville Courier-Journal and in 1899 it was repub- 
lished in the "Philosophy of Memory and Other Essays" by the writer. 

The contentions of that essay are, briefly, these : The earth is in a 
condition of isostasy; that is, a cone of equal angle and inclination taken 
from the highest plateau or mountain elevation is neither more or less, 



134 SCIENCE TO THE FRONT 

but just as heavy as a like cone taken from the level of the deepest sea. 
The sea then sinks down because the crust of the earth under the sea 
bottom is more dense, thicker and stronger than the earth crust of the 
dry land. 

If a piece of cardboard and one of writing paper be pressed together 
edgewise while lying on a firm support, the thin paper will bend before 
the cardboard with an upward convexity near the point of contact. 

So when contraction of the cooling cone of the. earth causes the sea 
bottom crust of the earth and the dry land crust to press horizontally 
against each other, the thicker sea bottom crust will force the land crust 
to bend with an upward convexity at its edge. These bends must become 
proportionately sharper with the progressive shrinking of the earth. 

Every increase in the curvature at the edge of the sea bottom crust 
will produce a greater or less number of A-shaped fissures in its under 
surface, and every increase in the convexity of the adjacent land crust 
will produce a greater or less number of V-shaped fissures in its upper 
part. 

Now, into these A-shaped fissures, when formed, expansible incan- 
descent matter will escape, and the shock of its arrested expansion will 
produce an earthquake intense in proportion to the forces developed. 

But sometimes these fissures will extend quite up to the sea bottom. 
If the water is deep, which it probably always is under such circum- 
stances, the inrush will take place with great force. Oft Martinique is 
the West India deep, extending down nearly four miles. At this depth 
the water would rush into a fissure with about one-third the speed of 
a cannon ball, and a few miles from the bottom of the fissure it would 
meet with a great mass of glowing lava rising up from below. A great 
expansion of the water, now changed into steam, would result with prob- 
able explosion and violent earthquakes. 

Under the unspeakable pressure the steam and the gases let loose 
from the lava would seek to escape through the fissure back to the sea, 
reaching the outlet with all the force of an explosion. 



SCIENCE TO THE FRONT 135 

Not to mention the stupendous resistance of the narrowing cavity 
of the fissure, at the fissure itself it would meet the apex of a cone extend- 
ing to the surface of the sea and having a width there equal to the depth 
of the sea. That is, coming to the outlet with the speed of explosion, 
this steam would have to lift sixteen cubic miles or about 75,000,000,000 
tons of water. 

Of course this effort would create terrible trembling of the earth, but 
could it succeed? 

But first we must ask what started all of this. Why the incandescent 
core of the earth had, by contraction, taken away the support of the crust 
until the crust was forced to fall in on it. This would then, of course, 
signify that the road had been made easy up under the comparatively 
weak earth crust to the fissure at the top of the land curve, which by this 
time possibly reaches down to the incandescent mass beneath, and 
through it would make its exit. 

Once started the rocking and trembling might close these fissures or 
they may be reopened or new ones formed. Or the pressure from be- 
neath might be kept up until the lava could escape even through the bot- 
tom of the sea. 

It will be observed by anyone who takes the trouble to look that all 
volcanic regions are in reach of deep seas. The Kuro deep is near Japan ; 
there is a deep in the Mediterranean near Vesuvius, and Krakatoa is in 
the neighborhood of an abyssmal deep. Doubtless many additional 
theories and hypotheses are necessary to explain all the phenomena con- 
nected with volcanoes and their accompanying earthquakes, but I believe 
this theory, as far as it goes, to be unassailable. 

A cable from Fort de France, May 31, announced that the National 
Geographical Society had scored a great triumph through its representa- 
tive there, Professor Angelo Heilprin, who, with three guides, ascended 
to the top of the crater on the summit of Mont Pelee. Professor Heilprin 
is also president of the Philadelphia Geographical Society. 

Professor Heilprin had gone to the plantation Vive, which is near 



136 SCIENCE TO THE FRONT 

the crater, in company with Fernand Clerc and Mr. Reid, landed proprie- 
tors of Martinique. This expedition had been especially organized by 
United States Consul Ayme and Professor Heilprin and was led by the 
latter. 

The expedition left Fort de France May 29, at noon. The day fol- 
lowing was spent in studying the newly-formed craters on the north 
flank of the mountain. The second morning Professor Heilprin deter- 
mined to attempt the ascent to the top of the crater, and with this pur- 
pose in view he set out at five o'clock. 

The volcano was very active, but amid a thousand dangers Professor 
Heilprin reached the summit and looked down into the huge crater. 
Here he spent some time in taking careful observations. He saw a huge 
cinder cone in the center of the crater. The opening of the crater itself 
is a vast crevice 500 feet long and 150 feet wide. 

While Professor Heilprin was on the summit of the volcano several 
violent explosions of steam and cinder, laden vapor took place and again 
and again his life was in danger. Ashes fell about him in such quantities 
at times as to completely obscure his vision. One particularly violent ex- 
plosion of mud covered the professor from head to foot with the hideous, 
viscid and semisolid matter. He still persisted in his study and observa- 
tions, however, and twice more was showered with mud. He learned, 
as had been suspected, that there were three separate vents through 
which steam issued. 

Professor Heilprin's journey down the side of the mountain was 
fully as perilous as the ascent. Mont Pelee seemed to resent the intrusion 
of a puny human being into her most awful precincts and belched out 
huge volumes of steam, ashes and boiling hot mud. 

The professor made the important discovery that the crater at the 
head of the River Fallaise has synchronous eruptions with the crater at 
the summit of the volcano, and that it ejects precisely the same matter at 
such times. The River Fallaise crater, and the crater at the summit 
showed during Professor Heilprin's visit a new phenomenon. Mud was 



SCIENCE TO THE FRONT 137 

thrown up in high columns. Heretofore the mud had bubbled or boiled 
out and flowed downward in huge streams. In the course of one erup- 
tion. of the River Fallaise crater an enormous mass of intensely hot mud 
was ejected. This flow reached the rum distillery on the Vive planta- 
tion and extinguished all the fires there. 

Mr. Clerc furnished the following details of Professor Heilprin's 
ascent : The party proceeded on mules to an altitude of 700 meters, the 
ancient line of vegetation. From this point Professor Heilprin continued 
on foot, leaving the mule that had carried him up the steep hog-back to 
the tree line. Upon reaching the site of Lake Palmiste the professor 
found it completely dried up. He crossed the bed of the lake and con- 
tinued on up the gently rising slope to the crater. Formerly the edge of 
the crater was a high bluff or shoulder. This, the explorer found, had 
fallen into the great crater, and he thinks this change probably occurred 
at the time of the great explosion of May 20. This is the first important 
topographic alteration in Mont Pelee which has been noted and verified. 

Professor Heilprin arrived at the edge of the summit crater at 1 130 
and remained there for over two hours. When he returned to Vive he 
resembled a statue of mud. The weight of the ashes and mud he car- 
ried on his person, the horrible atmosphere he breathed and the fearful 
difficulties he encountered reduced him to a condition of extreme fatigue, 
notwithstanding the fact that he ascended Mont Pelee from the most 
accessible and easiest side. 

George Kennan and his party, who went to Morne Rouge, found on 
their return trip that a bridge across the road had been carried away by 
a torrent of hot mud. Negroes managed to get the party across the 
obstruction. They took the carriages to pieces and carried them and the 
members of the party to the other side of the river of mud, which was 
still hot. 

Professor Heilprin's report of his observations is as follows : 

"I left Fort de France with Mr. Leadbetter the morning of May 29. 
May 31 we made our first ascent of the volcano. We left Acier at half 



138 SCIEXCE TO THE FRONT 

past 5 and Vive at half past 7 o'clock in the morning. The party consisted 
of Mr. Leadbetter and myself and three colored boys. We were on mule- 
back. At an altitude of 700 meters we began the ascent of the arete. We 
passed along its east side and slightly to the north of the mountain. We 
arrived at the lip of the old crater, the former site of Lake Palmiste, at 
1 1 o'clock. 

''Here it began raining. Rain clouds and the clouds from the volcano 
enveloped us and we could not see ten feet. A terrific thunder storm had 
begun and we sat on the edge of the crater for some time speculating 
whether the detonations we heard were of thunder or from the volcano. 
As we afterward found the River Fallaise to be boiling, the detonations 
were probably volcanic. 

''We could not tell how near we were to the crater, as, either from local 
attraction or the electric conditions, our compass refused to work. Its 
variation was about twenty degrees to the eastward, but later we found 
that it acted normally at the lip of the new crater. 

"The colored boys with us were horribly scared. We finally groped 
our way down that awful arete, through gloomy clouds of rain and amid 
great electric discharges. At every step we dislodged the rain-soaked 
ashes and were in danger of being precipitated down the hideous gorges 
on either side. 

'The extreme top of the volcano is covered with cinders, scoriae, bowl- 
ders and angular rocks which had been ejected from the crater. 
Further down, the mountain is covered with ashes and mud, and 
these are thick on the arete. On our way down we saw the River Fal- 
laise rushing along with great velocity and full of steam and of mud. 
We reached Acier well, but soaked, caked with mud and very much dis- 
appointed. 

"At Acier we met George Kennan and his party and determined to 
attempt a second ascent the next day, June 1. The ascent made this clay 
with Mr. Kennan was more trying and difficult than the one I had pre- 
viously made with Mr. Leadbetter. 



SCIENCE TO THE FRONT 139 

"The day was intensely hot and it was raining. When we reached 
the old crater it was again enveloped in vapor. The temperature of the 
basin of Lake Palmiste, taken three inches below the surface, was 124 
degrees Fahrenheit. Between rifts in the clouds of vapor we could see 
the new crater, of which Mr. Varian made an excellent sketch. 

"Suddenly the vapor cleared away and we made a dash forward. We 
reached the edge of the new crater and from where we stood we could 
have dropped stones into the white hot mass within. The new crater is 
a crevasse running north and south and expanding into a bowl. This 
crevasse nearly rifted the mountain ; it runs transversely to the old crater 
and might be called a huge gash. From it volcanic material has been 
freely erupted. 

"As we stood on the edge of the crater a sublime spectacle began. I 
now have some conception of what is going on inside the earth and have 
been a spectator of nature's secret interior work. We were assailed with 
noise. Far below there was a hissing of steam like that of a thousand 
locomotives, as well as violent detonations. 

"The principal output of the crater while we were there was steam. 
The phenomenon was limited and was not essentially different from those 
of other volcanoes in action. Positive assurance was gained that no 
molten matter has flowed over the lip of the new crater. 

"Several observations taken with the aneroid barometer showed that 
the height of Mont Pelee has not been changed. I agree with Professor 
Robert T. Hill, the geologist of the United States government, that Mont 
Pelee has erupted no lava and that there has been no cataclysm <jr any 
serious topographical alterations. 

"No cinder cone was visible in the crater ; what was taken for a cone 
is a pile of ejected rocks. Perhaps the bottom of the new crater may con- 
tain cinder cone, but we could see down only about 150 or 200 feet. I 
believe, however, that the crater is very much deeper than this. 

"I think Mont Pelee has freed itself from the interior pressure and 



140 SCIENCE TO THE FRONT 

that the volcano is not liable to further violent eruption. It is not safe, 
however, to make predictions about volcanoes. 

'The eruption of Mont Pelee of May 8 was unique in that it resulted 
in the greatest destruction of life and property ever known by direct 
agency of a volcano. The phenomenon of explosion of flaming gases is 
probably new, but a careful study of observations is necessary before an 
opinion can be reached. The electrical phenomena are also new. They 
probably did not play the chief role in the destruction of St. Pierre, but 
were developed by and aided the other forces. I have specimens which 
show the effect of the bolts of lightning. The latter were small and in- 
tense and penetrated within the houses of the city. For rapidity of action 
and for lives lost Mont Pelee holds the record among volcanoes." 

The following important points were settled by Professor Heilprin: 
The location of the new crater was accurately determined; it is positively 
known that there had been no overflow of molten matter from the lip 
of the crater; there had been no subsidence of the mountain and the 
height of Mont Pelee was unchanged ; there had been no cataclysm and no 
topographical alteration of the country. The period of violent eruptions 
had probably ended, although the volcano may continue to be quietly 
active for a long time to come. 

The following communication appeared in the London journals, 
and is interesting from a scientific viewpoint : 

'To the Editor— 

"Sir, — In 1883, in connection with the eruption of Krakatoa, you 
were good enough to allow me to appeal through your quickly and widely 
circulated columns for early information to enable me to test an idea 
connected with the spread of the glorious sunsets round the world which 
followed the event. 

''Because the terrible catastrophes in Martinique and St. Vincent 
occurred at a well defined sunspot minimum I was led to inquire whether 
similar coincidences were to be traced in the past. I did not know then, 



-vK; 



v 







A FRENCH CREOLE in St. Pierre, Martinique. 



SCIENCE TO THE FRONT 143 

but I know now, that Wolf, exactly half a century ago, had suggested 
a connection between solar and seismic activity; in his time, however, 
the record of solar changes was short and imperfect. 

"In my own inquiry I have used our most recently compiled tables, 
which are now complete for the last 70 years, and I have only considered 
seismic disturbances within that period. I find it beyond question that 
the most disastrous volcanic eruptions and earthquakes, generally occur, 
like the rain pulses in India, round the dates of the sun-spot maximum 
and minimum. More than this, the 35-year solar period established by 
Dr. Lockyer, which corresponds approximately with Bruckner's meteoro- 
logical cycle, can also be obviously traced, so that, indeed, the intensifica- 
tion of the phenomena at the minimum of 1867 is now being repeated. 

"In 1867, Mauna Loa, South America, Formosa, Vesuvius were 
among the regions involved; in the West Indies it was the turn of St. 
Thomas. The many announcements of earthquakes in the present year 
before the catastrophe of St. Pierre will be in the recollection of every- 
body. 

"In the maximum in 1871-72, to name only West Indian stations, 
Martinique first and then St. Vincent followed suit; in the next maxi- 
mum, in 1883, came Krakatoa. 

"At Tokio, in a country where the most perfect seismological observa- 
tories exist, we find that at times near both sun-spot maxima and minima 
the greatest number of disturbances have been recorded. 

"Very fortunately, the magnificent work of the Indian Meteorological 
Department enables us to associate the solar changes with pressures in 
the tropics, and obviously these pressures have to be taken into account 
and carefully studied. 

"This, sir, brings me to the point of this letter, which is, through your 
kindness, to ask from meteorological observers in the West Indies and 
the surrounding regions the favor of copies of their barometrical read- 
ings, showing the departures from the local means for the two months 



i44 SCIENCE TO THE FRONT 

preceding the eruption at St. Pierre. In this way one or two years may 
be saved in getting at the facts. 

"I am, sir, your obedient servant, 

"Norman Lockyer. 
"Solar Physics Observatory, May 17." 

Professor Adolph G. Vogeler contributes an article of great interest 
to answer the public inquiry- as to what is the cause of earthquakes. He 
says: 

"While not a systematic student of geology and seismology, still the 
latter subject has enlisted my interest for many years. Thus it hap- 
pened that a conception has evolved in my mind which, in view of the 
recent developments, has ripened to a conviction amounting almost to 
certainty as to its correctness. Whether this theory is entirely or par- 
tially original with me I am unable to say. I may have read something 
to that effect years ago, but it seems to have come to me slowly after 
reading the different explanations, now current, but which my mind 
rejected. 

"Without attempting to refute the latter — namely, that water is the 
primary cause of volcanic disturbances, or else water of crystallization 
in the rocks or the weight of accumulated sedimentation of river soil — I 
w r ill outline briefly my own views on this subject. 

"When an apple dries out, its surface becomes covered with ridges 
and rills, precisely as our faces become wrinkled when the underlying 
fatty tissue disappears. The reason, it need not be explained, is that the 
inelastic covering occupies more space than the contracting body, and 
hence must be placated. So the earth. 

"Originally our globe was fluid and smooth. The surface cooled and 
formed a hard crust. But the fluid core continued to cool down and 
to contract in diameter, and, as in the case of the apple, the rigid crust 
had to adjust itself by breaking along certain lines and throwing up 
ridges. Hence mountain chains are nothing but wrinkles upon the face 
of Old Mother Earth, who has passed the period of her youth. 



SCIENCE TO THE FRONT 145 

"At first, when the crust was yet comparatively thin, these ridges 
and rills were of little permanence, and the topography of the earth's 
surface underwent frequent and radical changes, and the mountains were 
not very high. 

"By and by the aqueous vapors of the atmosphere were precipitated 
and an ocean of water covered the entire globe, while the crust went on 
growing thicker and thicker until at present it has attained an estimated 
thickness of about thirty miles. 

"Now, however, the more rigid and solid crust no longer so readily 
adjusts itself to the receding fluid core, and as a consequence hollow 
spaces appear between the latter and the former. 

"At length the strain becomes too great, the crust breaks down and 
ridges are thrown up so mighty that their crests are raised far above the 
level of the surrounding ocean, and with the waters retreating into the 
depressions the continents make their appearance. But there is more to 
tell. 

"In the first place, the mountains are strata of rock standing on end 
and leaning against each other, so that along their crests runs a crack 
extending down to the very space beneath formed by the roof of rock 
and below which in turn extends the level of the molten interior core. 

"In the second place, the mountain chains are most likely to rise 
straight out of the water and to be bathed by the same. Thirdly, moun- 
tains are not the result of volcanic upheaval, but the natural result of the 
earth's contraction. And now, with these preparatory explanations, I 
come to my own conception of the cause of quakes and eruptions. 

"When, after a period of readjustment and subsequent quiescence 
the crust once more breaks down, it presses upon the liquid core and 
forces it up into the domes of the mountains, and out of the less resistant 
crest if the pressure be sufficiently great. Here then would be presented 
an eruption, or rather flow of molten lava without accompanying volcanic 
explosions, while after readjustment we might have a volcanic crater 
filled with incandescent lava in a quiescent state. 



146 SCIENCE TO THE FRONT 

"But now imagine that in the process of settling of the crust cracks 
form under the adjacent water, then we will have all the terrible phe- 
nomena of an active volcano, caused not alone by the sudden vaporiza- 
tion of water, but by the gases formed through the contact of the former 
with the heated chemicals, foremost among these sulphur. 

"The quaking of the earth, of course, is due to the settling of the 
strata and a general readjustment. Thus, the foregoing view being cor- 
rect, every extensive mountain chain is potentially a volcanic region ; not 
because it has been produced by volcanic action, but because it represents 
a place of weak resistance against the periodical pressure of the earth's 
molten interior mass. 

"The theory here laid down fully explains why volcanic and seismic 
disturbances may take place simultaneously at so widely separated locali- 
ties, extend over a limited period with decreasing severity, and then sub- 
side for perhaps another long interval, during which the molten lava of 
the craters cools and forms regions of least, i. e., weakened resistance, 
while that along the western coast of the Americas is of more recent 
date. 

"The last two weeks have given us an excellent illustration of the 
actuality of these belts. Extending from the Caribbean Sea, there have 
been disturbances in Central America, California and Alaska, while east- 
ward seismic phenomena have been manifested in Spain, Italy, Austria 
and further on. 

"This time there appears to have occurred an unusually extensive set- 
tling, and the layers are now in process of readjustment. Seismic phe- 
nomena may, hence, be possible for an indefinite period to come, in 
which even the Appalachian chain may become involved. It is the flow 
of beautiful, if treacherous, lakes, while credulous humanity fondly de- 
ludes itself into the sweet thought that the thin shell upon which it wears 
out its little throbbing heart will outlast eternity. 

"Thus, in. my humble opinion, volcanic action and quakes are not 
local there, but general in nature, the local phenomena being of a sec- 




A MARTINIQUE BELLEJ showing S , vle of Uross a „ d n ^ 



SCIENCE TO THE FRONT 149 

ondary character entirely. We now also can understand why active vol- 
canoes are largely situated near the sea. 

''This theory further explains in a manner why there may be formed 
such volcanic belts as at this geologic era encircle the earth, one longitu- 
dinally and the other approximately equatorially. The equatorial belt 
probably is the older. Furthermore, it is not impossible that even now 
entire islands may disappear and others arise in their stead. 

"In conclusion it may be said that in addition to the physical, struc- 
ture of the local geologic strata and the contour and rotation determin- 
ing the time, place and direction of formation of the earth's wrinkles, 
giving rise to mountains and ocean beds, the tidal action upon the earth's 
liquid interior produced by the moon and augmented by the fortuitous 
position of the planets, must be assumed to play an important role." 

It is claimed for science that there was predicted fifty years ago, in 
1 85 1, by scientific writers, that before another half century there would 
be a violent earthquake or other volcanic disturbance in the group of 
islands of which Martinique is the center. 

There were assigned as chief causes of such disturbances — first, vol- 
canic explosions, and, second, overloading. The St. Pierre disaster, say 
the scientists, was caused by the latter. 

By overloading it means the carrying down of silt or sand by large 
rivers, thus creating an extra pressure on a certain spot of the thin sur- 
face for the earth. This increases until it makes a slight crack in the 
crust of the earth, causing the eruption of lava or a disaster like the earth- 
quakes of Lisbon and Charleston. 

The West Indian islands, including Martinique, were especially ex- 
posed to this danger. They are the dumping ground for all the sand 
silt and sediment washed down by the Ohio and Mississippi rivers, 
besides all the smaller rivers that flow into the Gulf of Mexico. 

Very few people have any idea of the great quantity of sediment that 
is washed down by a large river. But a scientist has estimated that a 



150 SCIENCE TO THE FRONT 

belt line of freight cars could not haul more than half as much as the 
Potomac river deposits at its mouth. 

"What, then, shall be said of the sediment-carrying power of a 
mighty torrent like the Mississippi, which deposits its enormous load 
among the West Indies. 

Every city or island near the mouth of a large river is in danger of 
earthquakes and volcanic explosions. 

Such dangerous districts are, for instance, the land near the mouth 
of the River Po, into which a number of other rivers empty great quan- 
tities of silt, the Bay of Bengal, which is the dumping ground for the 
famous Ganges and other rivers; the Yellow sea, which empties loads 
of sandy deposit from the Chinese river Yang-tse, and the district around 
the mouth of the Amazon. 

Smaller and slower rivers, such as the Hudson and Rhine, are not 
apt to cause earthquakes, though they are certain to do so if only given 
sufficient time. 

The surface of the earth is very thin in proportion to its bulk. The 
skin of an ordinary orange, so say scientists, is much thicker than the 
rind of the earth upon which we tread in proportion to its size. 

Any very serious alteration in the weight which rests upon this thin 
earth surface, therefore, is liable to cause a pressure that results in earth- 
quakes and similar disturbances. 

Every region, whether of land or water, that lies at the foot of a large 
sloping territory and thus at the mouth of great rivers, is in danger of 
such sudden disasters as have befallen Lisbon, Charleston, Pekin and St. 
Pierre. 

No means known to modern science can be used to avert such dis- 
asters. They are the result of gigantic natural forces, beyond all human 
power. No human engineer can control the fires that rage in the earth's 
center. 

At the most, nothing can be done except to foresee such happenings 
and to warn the inhabitants of all near-by towns and cities that there 



SCIENCE TO THE FRONT 151 

is imminent clanger in their locality of overloading and consequently of 
earthquakes and volcanic eruptions. 

A report, as follows, was made to the hydrographic office last year 
by Captain Thomas, and it attracts a good deal of attention : 

The Captain says that on May 5, 1901, while about thirty-two miles 
east of the southern point of Martinique, the sea suddenly rose with great 
fury, breaking as if on rocks. This continued, he says, for about four 
hours, when the sea became smooth again. His ship labored very heavily, 
and was uncontrollable during the phenomenon. 

The superintendent of the United States coast and goedetic survey 
reports that the delicately suspended magnetic needles at the two coast 
and geodetic survey magnetic observatories, the one situated at Chelten- 
ham, Md., sixteen miles southeast of Washington, and the other at 
Baldwin, Kan., seventeen miles south of Lawrence, were disturbed, be- 
ginning at about the time the catastrophe at St. Pierre occurred. The 
wave of fire struck St. Pierre about eight o'clock a. m. May 8 and a clock 
was stopped at 7 150. 

The magnetic disturbance began at the Cheltenham observatory at a 
time corresponding to 7:53, St. Pierre local mean time, and at the Bald- 
win observatory at 7:55, St. Pierre time. 

The delicate apparatus installed at these observatories is so arranged 
that it registers automatically by photographic means the minutest varia- 
tions in the direction and intensity of the earth's magnetic force. It is 
a noteworthy fact that no seismological observatory has thus far reported 
a seismic disturbance during the eruption. 

Up to the present time no magnetic effect due to eruptions of distant 
volcanoes have ever been recognized at magnetic observatories. Purely 
mechanical vibrations caused by earthquakes have been often registered 
by the delicately poised magnetic needles. The Guatemalian earthquake 
on April 18, for instance, was recorded not only by seismographs at vari- 
ous places, but also at the Cheltenham magnetic observatory of the coast 
survey. This earthquake simply caused a mechanical vibration of the 



152 SCIENCE TO THE FRONT 

magnetic needles about their mean position of rest, and lasted about one- 
half hour, whereas the disturbance of May 8 was a distinct magnetic 
effect, pulling the needles aside from their usual direction and lasting 
many hours. 

It is denied by the scientists, generally, that the report of the deepen- 
ing of the sea near the scene of the great Caribbee Island eruptions can be 
true to the extent reported. The story was that a French cable ship that 
had been taking soundings in connection with the recent breaking of the 
cables by the earthquakes, discovered that the bed of the ocean had in 
parts sunk to an enormous extent, and the evidence seems to be very 
particular. The French cable ship had, of course, been in the habit of 
taking soundings as a matter of business, and had a business occasion to 
take them over again where the cables were broken, and they made the 
exact statement that near Guadeloupe the lead showed formerly a depth 
of 900 feet, where now there is a depth of 4,000 feet, or a sinking of the 
bottom of the sea of 3,100 feet. This was at some distance from Pont a 
Patrie, and it is argued by those who understand the consideration of the 
earth's crust, that such a serious change, as so great a distance from the 
scene of eruptions of Martinique and St. Vincent might produce and are 
likely to do so a still greater change in the West Indies, and might even 
involve the loss of entire islands. 

The islands, from St. Vincent in the south to St. Thomas and even 
Jamaica in the north, form a continuous chain of volcanic craters rising 
from the ocean bed. These enormous chimneys penetrate through the 
ocean bed to the substratum of molten lava, and elementary substances 
that is ever seething and boiling. This liquid mass of burning molten 
substance, set free by contraction of the overlying strata and generating 
huge masses of explosive steam from the inrush of sea water, is believed 
to have produced and to be still producing serious changes in the sea 
bed that may yet involve the whole volcanic chain of the Lesser Antilles. 
Reports from St. Lucia, Dominica, Guadeloupe, Montserrat, Antigua 
and even the Danish West Indies tell of the great apprehension of the 



SCIENCE TO THE FRONT 153 

inhabitants in these islands. They are all volcanic and have extinct vol- 
canoes, some of which are already showing- signs of disturbance. The thin- 
ness of the earth's crust throughout the Lesser Antilles region, which 
corresponds in formation to that of the Mediterranean, being well 
known, creates apprehension lest the volcanic wave may burst through 
at all these points and involve the West Indies in common ruin. With 
St. Vincent and Martinique in trouble the disaster is bad enough, but 
there are not wanting many pessimists who fear the worst and spread 
alarm. 



CHAPTER X. 

THE LAST DAYS OF ST. PIERRE. 

The Fiction of a Great Novelist Relating to the Last Days of 
Pompeii, Overwhelmed by Vesuvius, Becomes History Ap- 
plied to Mont Pelee's Destruction of St. Pierre. 

Bulwer's novel, 'The Last Days of Pompeii," pictures the later 
decades of the first century of the Christian era, and condenses the 
accounts of the burial of Pompeii and Herculaneum, written by a man 
of genius, whose studies of history were scholarly, thorough and accu- 
rate. The purpose of the fiction was to introduce characters fitted to 
the age and surroundings, and at the supreme moment of the dramatic 
action in the amphitheater, introduce the overwhelming outburst of 
Vesuvius. We present the passages of the story of the Last Day most 
striking as descriptive of the uproar and outpour of destructive clouds 
and floods of fire, following precisely the course of events, and sketching 
the scenery of the spectacle of the burial of two cities nearly two thou- 
sand years ago, the curtain falling in the theater on the catastrophe. 

"The Last Days" of the long-lost cities are rendered with the hand 
of a master of literary art, who spared no pains to be true to the times, 
the scenes and the persons, to make his outline drawings historical; and 
the dramatis personse are embodiments of the manners and customs of 
Rome in her moral decline, when drifting to^ her inevitable fall. 

The picture Bulwer drew of the last hours of Pompeii and Hercula- 
neum answers closely to the volcanic phenomena, that in the Caribbee 
Islands have alarmed and aroused the world. 

It was a night of bloody games and high festivity in the theaters of 
the doomed cities by the sea. The gladiators and wild beasts were 
slaughtering each other. There were present Athenians and Egyptians, 

154 



THE LAST DAYS OF ST. PIERRE 155 

and a mighty man of mystery was about to perish, when he who was 
soon to be sacrificed, and had been dreaming of terrors, praying for the 
disappointment of the mob, and certain there was something awful in 
the air, saw the answer to his prayers, and — 

"Behold !" he shouted with a voice of thunder, which stilled the roar 
of the crowd; "behold, how the gods protect the guiltless! The fires 
of the avenging Orcus burst forth against the false witness of my 
accusers!" 

The eyes of the crowd followed the gesture of the Egyptian, and 
beheld, with ineffable dismay, a vast vapor shooting from the summit 
of Vesuvius, in the form of a gigantic pine-tree, the trunk, blackness; 
the branches, fire — a fire that shifted and wavered in its hue with every 
moment, now fiercely luminous, now of a dull and dying red, that again 
blazed terrifically forth with intolerable glare. 

There was a dead, heart-sunken silence, through which there sud- 
denly broke the roar of the lion, which was echoed back from within 
the building by the sharper and fiercer yells of its fellow beast. Dread 
seers were they of the burden of the atmosphere, and wild prophets of 
the wrath to come ! 

Then there arose on high the universal shrieks of women; the men 
stared at each other, but were dumb. At that moment they felt the 
earth shake beneath their feet; the walls of the theater trembled, and 
beyond in the distance they heard the crash of falling roofs ; an instant 
more and the mountain cloud seemed to roll toward them, dark and 
rapid, like a torrent; at the same time it cast forth from its bosom a 
shower of ashes mixed with vast fragments of burning stone! Over the 
crushing vines, over the desolate streets, over the amphitheater itself, 
far and wide, with many a mighty splash in the agitated sea, fell that 
awful shower! 

No longer thought the crowd of justice or of Arbaces; safety for 
themselves was their sole thought. Each turned to fly — each dashing, 
pressing, crushing against the other. Trampling recklessly over the 



156 THE LAST DAYS OF ST. PIERRE 

fallen, amidst groans, and oaths, .and pravers, and sudden shrieks, the 
enormous crowd vomited itself forth through the numerous passages. 
Whither should they fly ? Some, anticipating a second earthquake, has- 
tened to their homes to load themselves with their more costly goods, 
and escape while it was yet time; others, dreading the showers of ashes 
that now fell fast, torrent upon torrent, over the streets, rushed under 
the roofs of the nearest houses, or temples, or sheds — shelter of any 
kind — for protection from the terrors of the open air. But darker, 
and larger, and mightier, spread the cloud above them. It was a sud- 
den and more ghastly night rushing upon the realm of noon ! 

The Athenian had learned from his preserver that lone was yet in 
the house of Arbaces. Thither he fled to release — to save her. The 
few slaves whom the Egyptian had left at his mansion when he had 
repaired in long procession to the amphitheater had been able to offer 
no resistance to the armed band of Sallust; and when afterward the 
volcano broke forth, they had huddled together, stunned and fright- 
ened, in the inmost recesses of the house. Even the tall Ethiopian had 
forsaken his post at the door ; and Glaucus passed through the vast hall 
without meeting one from whom to learn the chamber of lone. Even 
as he passed, however, the darkness that covered the heavens increased 
so rapidly that it was with difficulty he could guide his steps. The 
flower-wreathed columns seemed to reel and tremble, and with every 
instant he heard the ashes fall cranchingly into the roofless peristyle. 
He ascended to the upper rooms ; breathless he paced along, shouting out 
aloud the name of lone; and at length he heard, at the end of a gallery, 
a voice, her voice, In wondering reply. To rush forward, to shatter 
the door, to seize lone in his arms, to hurry from the mansion, seemed 
to him the work of an instant! Scarce had he gained the spot where 
Nydia was than he heard steps advancing toward the house, and recog- 
nized the voice of Arbaces, who had returned to seek his wealth and 
lone ere he fled from the doomed Pompeii. But so dense was already 
the reeking atmosphere, that the foes saw not each other, though so 




INTERIOR OF CATUKDRAL AT ST. PIERRE, Showing Wreckage of Bell and Frame-work on the 
Ground. Remainder of Church Entirely Destroyed.— (Copyright, May 21, 1902,by The Press Publishing Com 
pany— New York World.) » 



THE LAST DAYS OF ST. PIERRE 159 

near, save that, dimly in the gloom, Glaucus caught the moving outline 
of the snowy robes of the Egyptian. 

They hastened onward, those three. Alas! Whither? They saw 
not a step before them — the blackness became utter. They were en- 
compassed with doubt and horror; and the death he had escaped 
seemed to Glaucus only to have changed his form and augmented its 
victim. 

O, Jupiter ! what sound is that ? The hissing of fiery water ! What ! 
does the cloud give rain as well as flame! Ha! what! shrieks? And, 
Burbo, how silent all is now ! Look forth ! 

Amidst the other horrors, the mighty mountain now cast up columns 
of boiling water. Blent and kneaded with the half-burning ashes, the 
streams fell like seething mud over the streets in frequent intervals. 
And full, where the priests of Isis had now cowered around the altars, 
on which they had vainly sought to kindle fires and pour incense, one 
of the fiercest of those deadly torrents, mingled with immense frag- 
ments of scoria, had poured its rage. Over the bended forms of the 
priests it dashed; that cry had been of death; that silence had been of 
eternity. The ashes, the pitchy stream, sprinkled the altars, covered 
the pavement and half concealed the quivering corpses of the priests. 

"They are dead," said Burbo, terrified for the first time, and hurry- 
ing back into the cell. "I thought not the danger was so near and 
fatal." 

A sudden flash of lightning from the mount showed to Burbo, who 
stood motionless at the threshold, the flying and laden form of the 
priest. He took heart; he stepped forth to join him, when a tremendous 
shower of ashes fell right before his feet. The gladiator shrank back 
once more. Darkness closed him in. But the shower continued fast, 
fast; its heaps rose high and suffocatingly; deathly vapors steamed 
from them. The wretch gasped for breath; he sought in despair again 
to fly; the ashes had blocked up the threshold; he shrieked as his feet 
shrank from boiling fluid. How could he escape? He could not climb 



160 THE LAST DAYS OF ST. PIERRE 

to the open space ; nay, were he able, he could not brave its horrors. It 
were best to remain in the cell, protected, at least, from the fatal air. 
He sat down and clenched his teeth. By degrees the atmosphere from 
without — stifling and venomous — crept into the chamber. He could 
endure it no longer. His eyes, glaring round, rested on a sacrificial axe, 
which some priest had left in the chamber; he seized it. With the des- 
perate strength of his gigantic arm he attempted to hew his way through 
the walls. 

Meanwhile the streets were already thinned ; the crowd had hastened 
to disperse itself under shelter ; the ashes began to fill up the lower parts 
of the town; but here and there you heard the steps of fugitives cranch- 
ing them wearily, or saw the pale and haggard faces by the blue glare 
of the lightning, or the more unsteady glare of torches, by which they 
endeavored to steer their steps. But ever and anon the boiling water, 
or the straggling ashes, mysterious and gusty winds, rising and dying 
in a breath, extinguished these wandering lights, and with them the 
last living hope of those who bore them. 

In the street that leads to the gate of Herculaneum, Clodius now 
bent his perplexed and doubtful way. "If I can gain the open coun- 
try," thought he, "doubtless there will be various vehicles beyond the 
gate, and Herculaneum is not far distant. Thank Mercury! I have 
little to lose, and that little is about me!" 

"Holla! Help there — help!" cried a querulous and frightened 
voice. "I have fallen down, my torch has gone out, my slaves have 
deserted me. I am Diomed — the rich Diomed; ten thousand sesterces 
1o him who helps me!" 

The air was now still for a few minutes; the lamp from the gate 
streamed out far and clear; the fugitives hurried on, they gained the 
gate, they passed by the Roman sentry; the lightning flashed over his 
livid face and polished helmet, but his stern features were composed 
even in their awe. He remained erect and motionless at his post. That 



THE LAST DAYS OF ST. PIERRE 161 

hour itself had not animated the machine of the ruthless majesty of 
Rome into the reasoning and self-acting man. 

The cloud, which had scattered so deep a murkiness over the day, 
had now settled into a solid and impenetrable mass. It resembled less 
even the thickest gloom of night in the open air than the close and 
blind darkness of some narrow room. But in proportion as the black- 
ness gathered did the lightnings around Vesuvius increase in their 
vivid and scorching glare. Xor was their horrible beauty "confined to 
the usual hues of fire; no rainbow ever rivaled their varying and prodi- 
gal dyes. Now brightly blue as the most azure depths of a southern 
sky; now of a livid and snake-like green, darting restlessly to and fro as 
the folds of an enormous serpent; now of a lurid and intolerable crim- 
son, gushing forth through the columns of smoke, far and wide, and 
lighting up the whole city from arch to arch; then suddenly dying into 
a sickly paleness, like the ghost of their own life. 

In the pauses of the showers you heard the rumbling of the earth 
beneath, and the groaning waves of the tortured sea ; or, lower still, 
an audible but to the watch of intensest fear, the grinding and hissing 
murmur of the escaping gases through the chasms of the distant moun- 
tain. Sometimes the cloud appeared to break from its solid mass, and, 
by the lightning, to assume quaint and vast mimicries of human or of 
monster shapes, striding across the gloom, hurtling one upon the other, 
and vanishing swiftly into the turbulent abyss of shade; so that to the 
eyes and fancies of the affrighted wanderers, the unsubstantial vapors 
were as the bodily forms of gigantic foes, the agents of terror and of 
death. 

The ashes in many places were already knee-deep; and the boiling 
showers which came from the steaming breath of the volcano forced 
their way into the houses, bearing with them a strong and suffocating 
vapor. In some places, immense fragments of rock, hurled upon the 
house-roofs, bore down alone: the streets masses of confused ruin, which 
yet more and more, with everv hour, obstructed the way ; and as the 



162 THE LAST DAYS OF ST. PIERRE 

day advanced, the motion of the earth was more sensibly felt; the foot- 
ing seemed to slide and creep, nor could chariot or litter be kept steady, 
even on the most level ground. 

Sometimes the huger stones, striking against each other as they 
fell, broke into countless fragments, emitting sparks of fire, which 
caught whatever was combustible within their reach; and along the 
plains beyond the city the darkness was now terribly relieved, for several 
houses, and even vineyards, had been set on flames; and at various in- 
tervals the fires rose sullenly and fiercely against the solid gloom. To 
add to this partial relief of the darkness, the citizens had, here and 
there, in the more public places, such as the porticos of temples, and the 
entrances to the forum, endeavored to place rows of torches; but these 
rarely continued long; the showers and the winds extinguished them, 
and the sudden darkness into which their sudden birth was converted 
had something in it doubly terrible and doubly impressing on the impo- 
tence of human hopes, the lesson of despair. 

Frequently, by the momentary light of these torches, parties of fugi- 
tives encountered each other, some hurrying toward the sea, others 
flying from the sea back to the land; for the ocean had retreated rap- 
idly from the shore; an utter darkness lay over it, and upon its groan- 
ing and tossing waves the storm of cinders and rock fell without the 
protection which the streets and roofs afforded to the land. Wild, hag- 
gard, ghastly with supernatural fears, these groups encountered each 
other, but without the leisure to speak, to consult, to advise; for the 
showers fell now frequently, though not continuously, extinguishing the 
lights, which showed to each band the death-like faces of the other, 
and hurrying all to seek refuge beneath the nearest shelter. The whole 
elements of civilization were broken up. Ever and anon, by the flick- 
ering lights, you saw the thief hastening by the most solemn authorities 
of the law, laden with, and fearfully chuckling over, the produce of his 
sudden gains. If, in the darkness, wife was separated from husband, 
or parent from child, vain was the hope of reunion. Each hurried 



THE LAST DAYS OF ST. PIERRE 165 

blindly and confusedly on. Nothing in all the various and complicated 
machinery of social life was left, save the primal law of self-preserva- 
tion! 

Through the darkness glared forth two burning eyes — the lightning 
flashed and lingered athwart the temple — and Glaucus, with a shudder, 
perceived the lion to which he had been doomed crouched beneath the 
pillars; and close beside it, unwitting of the vicinity, lay the giant form 
of him who had accosted them — the wounded gladiator, Niger. 

That lightning had revealed to each other the form of beast and 
man; yet the instinct of both was quelled. Nay, the lion crept nearer 
and nearer to the gladiator, as for companionship; and the gladiator 
did not recede or tremble. The revolution of nature had dissolved her 
lighter terrors as well as her wonted ties. 

Suddenly, as he spoke, the place became lighted with an intense and 
lurid glow. Bright and gigantic through the darkness, which closed 
around it like the walls of hell, the mountain shone, a pile of fire! Its 
summit seemed riven in two; or rather, above its surface there seemed 
to rise two monster shapes, each confronting each, as demons contend- 
ing for a world. They were of one deep blood-red hue of fire, which 
lighted up the whole atmosphere far and wide ; but below, the nether part 
of the mountain was still dark and shrouded, save in three places, adown 
which flowed serpentine and irregular rivers of the molten lava. Darkly 
red through the profound gloom of their banks, they flowed slowly on 
as toward the devoted city. Over the broadest there seemed to spring 
a cragged and stupendous arch, from which, as from the jaws of hell, 
gushed the sources of the sudden Phlegethon; and through the stilled 
air was heard the rattling of the fragments of rock, hurtling one upon 
another as they were borne down the fiery cataracts, darkening, for one 
instant, the spot where they fell, and suffused the next, in the burnished 
hues of the flood along which they floated ! 

The slaves shrieked aloud, and cowering, hid their faces. The 
Egyptian himself stood transfixed to the spot, the glow lighting up his 



166 THE LAST DAYS OF ST. PIERRE 

commanding features and jeweled robes. High behind him rose a tall 
column that supported the bronze statue of Augustus ; and the imperial 
image seemed changed into a shape of fire! 

A simultaneous crash resounded through the city as down toppled 
many a roof and pillar. The lightning, as if caught by the metal, lin-' 
gered an instant on the imperial statue, then shivered bronze and col- 
umn. Down fell the ruin, echoing along the street, and riving the solid 
pavement where it crashed. The prophecy of the stars was fulfilled. 

The sound, the shock, stunned the Athenian for several moments. 
When he recovered, the light still illumined the scene, the earth still slid 
and trembled beneath. lone lay senseless on the ground ; but he saw her 
not yet; his eyes were fixed upon a ghastly face that seemed to emerge 
without limbs or trunk, from the huge fragments of the shattered col- 
umn, a face of unutterable pain, agony and despair ! The eyes shut and 
opened rapidly, as if sense were not yet fled; the lips quivered and 
grinned; then sudden stillness and darkness fell over the features, yet 
retaining that aspect of horror never to be forgotten ! 

At length it occurred to Nydia that as it had been resolved to seek 
the sea-shore for escape her most probable chance of rejoining her com- 
panions would be to persevere in that direction. Guiding her steps, 
then, by the staff which she always carried, she continued, with incred- 
ible dexterity, to avoid the masses of ruin that encumbered the path, to 
thread the streets, and unerringly (so blessed now was that accustomed 
darkness, so afflicting in ordinary life), to take the nearest direction to 
the sea-side. 

Poor girl ! Her courage was beautiful to behold, and Fate seemed 
to favor one so helpless. The boiling torrents touched her not, save by 
the general rain which accompanied them ; the huge fragments of scoria 
shivered the pavement before and beside her, but spared that frail form ; 
and when the lesser ashes fell over her she shook them away with a 
slipfHt tremor, and dauntlessly resumed her course. 

Weak, exposed yet fearless, supported but by one wish, she was 



THE LAST DAYS OF ST. PIERRE 167 

a very emblem of Psyche in her wanderings ; of Hope walking through 
the Valley of the Shadow; of the soul itself, lone but undaunted, amidst 
the dangers and snares of life ! 

"The world is to be destroyed by fire," said an old man in long loose 
robes, a philosopher of the Stoic school: "Stoic and Epicurean wisdom 
have alike agreed in this prediction and the hour is come!" 

"Yea; the hour is come!" cried a loud voice, solemn but not fear- 
ful. 

Those around turned in dismay. The voice came from above them. 
It was the voice of Olinthus, who, surrounded by his Christian friends, 
stood upon an abrupt eminence on which the old Greek colonists had 
raised a temple to Apollo, now time-worn and half in ruin. 

As he spoke there came that sudden illumination which had heralded 
the death of Arbaces, and glowing over the mighty multitude, awed, 
crouching, breathless, never on earth had the faces of men seemed so 
haggard; never had meeting of mortal beings been so stamped with the 
horror and sublimity of dread; never, till the last trumpet sounds, shall 
such a meeting be seen again! And above rose the form of Olinthus, 
with outstretched arm and prophet brow, girt with the living fires. 
And the crowd knew the face of him they had doomed to the fangs of 
the beast, then their victim, now their warner; and through the still- 
ness again came his ominous voice — 

"The hour is come!" 

The Christians repeated the cry. It was caught up; it was echoed 
from side to side ; woman and man, childhood and old age, repeated, not 
aloud, but in a smothered and dreary murmur — 

"THE HOUR IS COME!" 

At that moment a wild yell burst through the air; and, thinking 
only of escape, whither it knew not, the terrible tiger of the desert 
leaped among the throng and hurried through its parted streams. And 
so came the earthquake, and so darkness once more fell over the earth ! 



CHAPTER XL 

A DAY ON SOUFRIERE. 

A Look Into the Crater of the Soufriere — The Invisible Song- 
Bird and Beauties of the Tropics — The Haunting Iron 
Lance Blacksnake. 

St. Vincent contains the last of the West Indian volcanoes from which 
the present century has witnessed destructive eruptions. A traveler with 
poetry and history in his ink, says : "The Soufriere, that towered 
above and overlooked the Richmond plantation, having-, in 1812, burst 
upon the island with terrible force, causing an eruption which seemed 
to relieve a pressure upon the earth's crust, extending from Caracas to 
the Mississippi Valley, was most disastrous in its effects, having cov- 
ered the whole island with ashes, cinders, pumice, and scoriae, destroyed 
many lives and ruined several estates. It lasted three clays, commencing 
on or near that fatal day, in 18 12, when Caracas was destroyed, and 
ten thousand souls perished in a moment of time." 

Ashes from this volcano descended upon Barbados, ninety-five miles 
to windward; and this fact is cited by Elise Reclus, in 'The Ocean," 
to show the force of different aerial currents : "On the first day of 
May, 1812, when the northeast trade-wind was in all its force, enormous 
quantities of ashes obscured the atmosphere above the Island of Bar- 
bados, and covered the ground with a thick layer. One would have 
supposed that they came from the volcanoes of the Azores, which were 
to the northeast; nevertheless, they were cast up by the crater in St. 
Vincent, one hundred miles to the west. It is therefore certain that the 
debris had been hurled, by the force of the eruption, above the moving 
sheet of the trade-winds into an aerial river proceeding in a contrary 
direction." 

168 



A DAY ON SOUFKIERE 169 

* Since that terrible outburst the volcano has remained inactive; hav- 
ing done its allotted work, it rested. 

An eye-witness thus describes its appearance previous to the erup- 
tion: "About three thousand feet above sea-level, on the south side 
of the mountain, opened a circular chasm exceeding half a mile in diam- 
eter, and between found hundred and five hundred feet in depth. Exactly 
in the center rose a conical hill nearly three hundred feet in height, and 
about two hundred in diameter, richly covered and variegated with 
shrubs, brushwood, and vines about half-way up, and the remainder 
covered over with virgin sulphur to the top. From the fissures of the 
cone a thin white smoke was constantly emitted, occasionally tinged with 
a slight, bluish flame. The precipitous sides of this magnificent amphi- 
theatre were fringed with various evergreens and aromatic shrubs, flow- 
ers, and Alpine plants. On the north and south sides of the base of the 
cone were two pieces of water, one perfectly pure and tasteless, the 
other strongly impregnated with sulphur and alum. This lonely and 
beautiful spot was rendered more enchanting by the singularly melo- 
dious notes of a bird, an inhabitant of these upper solitudes, and alto- 
gether unknown to the other parts of the island — hence called, or sup- 
posed to be, invisible, as it had never been seen. 

"A century had now elapsed since the last convulsion of the moun- 
tain, or since any other elements had disturbed the serenity of the 
wilderness, besides those which are common to the tropical tempest. It 
apparently slumbered in primitive solitude and tranquillity; and from 
the luxuriant vegetation and growth of the forest, which covered its 
sides from base to summit, seemed to discountenance the fact and falsify 
the record of the ancient volcano. 

"To ascend the volcano was the object of my visit to Richmond, and 
also to procure that famous bird call Invisible.' For a century, the 
people crossing the mountains had heard this bird, and for a century no 
one had looked upon it. No one could affirm that he had seen it. Its 
weird music, ascending from the frightful ravines on either side the 



170 A DAY ON SOUFRIERE 

narrow mountain trail, seemed to float near them, but the bird ever 
remained undiscovered. By a preliminary ascent I found that it would 
be necessary in order to procure the bird to spend several days on the 
mountain-top, as it dwelt in deep gorges and ravines, requiring patience 
and courage to penetrate. 

"At last came the perfect day, when the Soufriere emerged from the 
mist that had enveloped it for two weeks, and stood out clear against a 
sky of blue and clouds of silver gray. A glorious day was that last day 
in October, with its bright sun illumining the mountain, over whose 
crest were flitting shadows cast by fleeing clouds. The good people 
with whom I had rested for a week or more, added to my provisions lux- 
uries I could not purchase, such as guava jelly, Java-plum wine, limes 
and oranges, and Mr. Evelyn and his son rode with me a little way on 
my journey. 

"At first the road was along the shore, beneath cliffs and groo-groo 
palms; we crossed a turbulent river, with wide, rocky bed, and soon 
came to the bed of the famous 'dry river' — the channel worn by that 
resistless flood of lava when on its way to the sea. It is two hundred 
yards in width, barren in vegetation for a mile from the sea, inclosed 
between high cliffs, clothed in verdure, hung with vines, spiny palms, 
tree-ferns — a wonderful hanging garden. There are three of these 'dry 
rivers,' where the lava filled up the bed of some flowing stream, or 
excavated an immense furrow for itself in its descent; nothing will 
grow in them near the sea, though their banks are rank with vegetation. 

"We went through a cane-field, and then over an attractive pasture 
land, leaving which I commenced the ascent. Here, at the foot-hills of 
the Soufriere, my friends left me, and here my friend's mule ('Betsey/ 
the best mule on the estate) manifested a desire to return also. Vigor- 
ously I applied the spur, and she slowly ascended the winding path, over 
ridges covered with calumet grass and through forest-like groups o>f 
tree-ferns and wild plantains. Having given Betsey a taste of the grass 
while she was resting beneath a shade, she was prone to stop and loath 



A DAY ON SOUFRIERE 171 

to go ahead, and it was late when I reached the 'maroon tree,' half-way 
up the mountain-side. 

"Over and through the broad-leaved plants darted the humming- 
birds — crested, violet-breast, and crimson-throat. Most conspicuous 
and numerous was the latter, with back of purple-black and throat of 
crimson-gold. I found him oftenest in the upper forests, in the dark 
recesses of untrodden glens and along the borders of the mountain path. 
If you hear a sharp chirp in these silent woods, or are started by a 
sudden whir, be sure it is he. Sparrows, finches, and humming-birds 
were in profusion; they flew hurriedly across the space in front of the 
tree, and darted at once into the thicket, as though afraid in the open, 
but reassured in the shade. 

"Finally my men appeared, loudly complaining of their loads ; though 
I knew they had loitered and were at that moment chuckling to* them- 
selves over the manner in which they had 'fool Massa Buckra.' A wood- 
pigeon had been all the while feeding in the trees above, and parrots 
had proclaimed their presence by loud cries below, but both disappeared 
at the arrival of the men. After a biscuit and a sup of beer we went on ; 
the trail, increasing rapidly in steepness, left the tall trees behind, and 
led through smaller ones scarcely fifteen feet in height. Soon even these 
altogether ceased, and we climbed the backbone of the long hill leading 
to the summit, which is destitute of anything like trees, and densely 
covered with a fern with flat, branching head, and giant lycopodiums. 
One would fancy he could walk over this hill in any direction, so dense 
and solid appears this leafy carpet, but a step outside the trail almost 
anywhere would plunge him waist-deep in ferns, and probably neck- 
deep in a hole. The view of the grand, rugged, dark-green mountains 
near at hand, and of the constantly unfolding shore, green with sugar- 
cane, is superb. Here St. Vincent seems but two or three miles across, 
and one sees what a little island it is ; but; upon reflection, how grand 
are the works of nature contained herein! 

"Half a mile from the summit I heard the weird notes of the 'Souf- 



172 A DAY ON SOUFRIERE 

riere-bird,' that songster about which hung the mystery I hoped to 
penetrate. Slowly climbing the winding-path, I at length reached a 
cave, hollowed out of the- bank, hung with ferns dripping with moisture. 
My cave, however, was a mile farther, and without halting I passed 
on; a sudden turn revealed the crater deep and vast, on the very brink 
of which I stood. As my mule refused to go further, and kicked and 
reared in a manner not desirable on the brink of a crater half a mile 
deep, I was forced to return to the cave and tie the mutinous mule; then 
I leturned to the contemplation of the great work before me. The 
vapors wafted on the trade-wind, vapors in odor sulphureous, had, by 
their strength, warned me of its proximity. 

"It was a vast amphitheatre, a mile in diameter, as nearly circular as 
it is possible to be, three miles in circumference; the walls run straight 
down from my feet to a lake at the bottom. The lip, or top, is irregular, 
of a wavy outline, rising into pointed peaks, sinking into hollows; but 
from any point in this vast circumference the wall descends rapidly, and 
almost perpendicularly, to the water beneath. The sides are covered 
with a stunted vegetation, forming a smooth, sloping surface, which 
might deceive the spectator into the belief that he could walk down to 
the bottom. On the southern and southwestern sides it assumes more 
the amphitheatre shape, perpendicular ranges of rocks being piled one 
above another, circling around the southeastern side in columns that 
call to mind the ruins of the Coliseum. 

"The eastern wall divides the two craters — the 'old' and 'new,' the 
latter blown out in the eruption of 1812, where before was solid moun- 
tain. It is a mere jagged escarpment, along which no one now dares climb. 
Before the rain and force of the violent winds had crumbled it so much 
it was once sealed. It is said that Prince Alfred attempted it in 1861, 
on the occasion of his ascent of this volcano, but failed to accomplish it. 
It is so narrow that no one can stride it, and so steep down either side 
that it makes the head swim to measure it from above. The northern 
brim is the lowest, and it is here that the lava poured out toward the 



A DAY ON SOUFRIERE 173 

Caribbean Sea at Morne Ronde; and beyond is the higher peak, against 
which was forced the fiery flood, as seen by the wondering inhabitants 
of the coast. On the southern side the trees seem blasted and blackened 
by sulphur fumes. The southern wall rises high, and in its dome- 
shaped summit is excavated the cave, my home for nearly a week; its 
dark portal can be distinctly seen, though a mile away. 

"The whole shore of the lake at the bottom of the crater is incrusted 
with sulphur, a gray and yellow rim lining the base of the cliffs that dip 
down, no one knows how deep, into the water of the basin. Around the 
shore are little caves, grottos, and black openings to the many ravines 
that seam the side of the bowl. A little islet is formed on the eastern 
side — the 'new crater' side — by a detached rock, or water-worn pinnacle 
from a submerged rocky base. In some of the ravines are scattered tree- 
ferns, stunted, to be sure, yet possessing grace and beauty that the fern, 
especially the tree-fern, never loses. 

"But how shall I describe that sheet of water slumbering in the bowels 
of the crater ? It lies in the bottom of the bowl at least twelve hundred 
feet beneath the brim, serene, unmoved, a lake beneath the power of the 
elements to ruffle. Clouds of mist sail over it, and are blown into the 
crater from the eastward, but the fiercest gusts, and they are strong and 
frequent, cannot disturb that silent lake reposing in its bosom. Its hue 
is almost indescribable; pearl-green, creamy in hue yet with a decided 
greenish tint, opalescent with a tinge of the faintest aquamarine. Against 
gray cliffs, dark gorges and green moss, as it lies with its circling rim 
of golden sulphur, it resembles a huge opal in a setting of gold and 
emerald. 

"In the apex of the southern hill bordering the crater, some one, 
long ago, hollowed out a place for shelter. It is only about ten feet 
across in depth, and it is open on the northern side overlooking the lake, 
and, excepting a slight hollow, at the top, also ; but it gives shelter from 
the keen, mist-laden winds of the Atlantic, and by crouching in one 
corner, one can avoid the rains from any quarter but the northwest. 



174 A DAY ON SOUFRIERE 

"I found that the surface was cut up into ravines and gullies start- 
ing from the crater-rim. Probably the deepest of them were gouged 
out by the flood of lava that poured over the crater's edge in that terri- 
ble overflow of volcanic wealth. Rain flowing through the loose vol- 
canic ashes may have cut the more recent, but it could not have de- 
scended with sufficient impetuosity to have hollowed out the deep well- 
holes and cut those deep ravines with perpendicular walls. Starting 
from the narrow edge of the crater, they spread out like a fan, furrow- 
ing the outer surface of the cone, growing deeper, broader, and gloom- 
ier, until lost in the dark recesses below. Over all grew the small trees, 
densely crowded ; ferns, filamentous yuccas, moss and wild pines covered 
the earth and rocks in impenetrable confusion, so concealing the openings 
to the narrower gullies that it was impossible to ascertain their where- 
abouts without a very careful examination. It was into this wilderness 
that I plunged, floundering through tangled masses of branching fern 
and through dense clusters of ground-orchids. But I found few birds 
jsave a sparrow or two and a sucrier, and the prospect was more dis- 
couraging. 

"A death-like stillness pervaded that gloomy slope, disturbed only 
by the swirr of the volumes of mist as they slept ever the eastern spur, 
and faint notes of the Soufriere-bird down below. Suddenly I be- 
thought myself of a bird-call taught me by the Caribs of Dominica; and 
with such success did I use it, that, in ten minutes, the hitherto silent 
trees were alive with stirring feathered forms, hurrying forward in 
anxious flight. The first to respond — and I afterward found it always 
in advance of the others — was a flycatcher; it flew precipitately to the 
very tree beneath which I stood, and hopped about the branches, peering 
anxiously beneath; closely following him was his mate. 

''Soon I heard a low call-note, such as I had heard that bird give 
utterance to, and imitating it closely as possible, I was gratified to 
hear it approaching. Suddenly it came within gunshot. In a thought 
it saw me, jusi as I caught a snap-shot. Through the smoke I caught 



A DAY ON SOUFEIERE 175 

sight of a few floating feathers, and hurried forward through the mat- 
ted masses of ferns, until I stood beneath the tree upon which he had for 
a moment rested. There was nothing in sight; but searching lower 
down, I found it lodged in a wild pine on the verge of a ravine. In my 
anxiety to possess the bird, I neglected to examine the ground beneath 
my feet, and it gave way, and I, wildly grasping at overhanging roots, 
was thrown into the ravine, fifteen feet deep. I landed on my feet, 
bruised and a little torn, but without serious injury. 

''But how was I to get out? The walls were as smooth as falling 
water could make them, and the lower portion of the ravine disappeared 
suddenly in the direction of the lake. The head of the ravine was a hole 
like a well, and into this I had fallen, with little intermittent showers of 
water coming down. 

"A shower heavier than the others came down fiercely, setting rivu- 
lets running down the crater and washing the earth from beneath my 
feet, warning me to be out of the hole, if possible. Clinging to some 
projections in the rock, I worked my way slowly up until near the top; 
when about to thrust my arm through the vines that darkened my cham- 
ber, I was startled by the appearance of a black, shining head with glit- 
tering eyes, thrust into my face. But for the nearness to the opposite 
wall I should have fallen, this apparition took me so by surprise, for it 
was none other than an immense black snake. Fortunately, I could 
secure myself in position by bracing my legs against each opposing cliff, 
and was near, enough to- the top to clutch some roots, otherwise I could 
not have maintained the ground I had gained. The snake crawled out 
on a crevice in the rock, and though he may not have intended to harm 
me, I will confess to a feeling of fear at that time, and remembered with 
regret how thoughtlessly I had laughed at poor Toby, the day before, 
when he fled in terror from a snake I had caught by the tail. My gun, 
which had net been injured in my fall, was slung at my back, and by 
loosening it I managed to strike the snake a smart blow, which, though 
it angered him, caused him to glide down the cliff" instead of up. Thus 



176 A DAY ON SOUFKIEEE 

relieved, I scrambled through the dank vegetation, and stood once more 
above the ground. 

"From the lake came up a strange, hissing sound, as though the 
water was boiling, caused by the many streams set in flow by the rain 
running into it. Its usually placid surface was agitated and I could de- 
tect a perceptible change in its color. 

"My precious bird had landed safely at the bottom of the gulch and 
he now reposed in my game-basket the first Soufriere-bird that had ever 
been secured." 



CHAPTER XII. 

THE THEORY OE VOLCANOES. 

Dr. Samuel Kneeland, Richard A. Proctor, John Milne, Walter 
T. Brigham and Others on the Science of Volcanoes — ■ 
Causes Given and Results Described. 

Dr. Samuel Kneeland, A. M., M. D., has made special studies of 
volcanic phenomena, visiting the Hawaiian Islands and Iceland, making 
personal observations. In his excellent book, "Volcanoes and Eartk- 
quakes," he gives the following interesting scientific information : 

"According to Prof. Judd, the first step toward the exhibition of 
volcanic action must be the production of an opening in the earth's crust. 
The almost universal occurrence of the heated stratum above referred 
to, between the crust and the center, would explain, better than a fiery 
nucleus, the rise of the degree Fahrenheit for every fifty to sixty feet of 
descent. But this would vary according to the conducting power of the 
rocks and the depth of the heated stratum. 

"There are three hundred to three hundred and fifty great volcanoes 
on the globe. Including extinct ones, ancient and modern, there are 
about one thousand. There are tens of thousands of smaller volcanoes, 
and millions of stufas, geysers, hot springs, fumaroles, mud ejections, 
and the like. These last may make up in number what they lack in 
individual energy, and may be quite as useful as the larger ones in 
relieving the imprisoned dying volcanic forces. The greatest number 
of the principal volcanoes (about one hundred and seventeen) in North, 
Central and South America, are on the continents, and twice as many in 
the oceanic islands. At an early geological period the whole line of the 
present Atlantic was probably traversed by a chain of volcanoes on the 
grandest scale; but at present only a few parts of this range are above 
the sea, forming the isolated islands and groups now seen. From the 

177 



178 THE THEORY OF VOLCANOES 

pressure of the ocean — a ton on every square inch of bottom, for 
each one fathom of water — it does not seem possible that volcanic cones 
could be built up from the bottom, if a deep sea. and reach the surface ; 
but quiet outwellings might in many cases occur from fissures in the 
ocean beds. 

"The periodical activity of volcanoes, their violent paroxysms and 
seasons of rest, sometimes for centuries, seem natural on the theory of 
subsidence and fissure, according as it is sudden and great, or slow and 
slight, letting in water, and thus exciting and perpetuating steam action 
along lines of weakness. Explosive forces seem inadequate to account 
for them. The shifting of the axis of eruption, as in Etna, and the linear 
arrangement all the world over, indicate subsidence as the primary cause, 
and eruption as a secondary effect. 

"As Prof. Judd states, Mr. Scrope pointed out that the ordinary 
argument for the explanation of volcanic outbursts is simply 'reasoning 
in a circle.' It is assumed, on the other hand, that the fissures are pro- 
duced by steam and other forces set free by the passage of sea water 
to interior heated masses; and, on the other, that the production of 
these fissures leads to the influx of water. If the passage of water bv the 
fissures produces eruptions, what had caused the fissures ? If the subter- 
ranean forces can produce the fissures, why not the eruptions also? 
It would seem, then, that only subsidence or fracture, as above explained, 
can resolve the difficulty. 

"Changes of two inches in barometric pressure within a brief period 
are not uncommon. A fall to this extent indicates the removal of a 
weight of about two million tons from each square mile of the surface of 
the earth implicated. This relief of pressure is enough to cause the 
flashing into steam of the superheated water, or escape of explosive 
gases, which we have good reason to believe exist in volcanic areas. 
Such a relief of pressure, whether from terrestrial movements or atmos- 
pheric changes, may be better appreciated by an allusion to what has 
been called the 'potentially liquid condition.' 



THE THEORY OF VOLCANOES iY» 

"The boiling point of liquids, and the fusing point of solids, are 
very much raised by great pressure, so that water may remain liquid 
at a temperature far above two hundred and twelve degrees Fahrenheit 
in the depths of the earth, while masses of rock may be in a solid state 
at a temperature far above that at which they would melt at the surface. 
They are then said to be in a 'potentially liquid condition.' Upon the 
relief of this pressure, the water would flash into explosive steam, and 
the rock assume the liquid or lava state. This would explain how by a 
fissure the ejecting force and the ejected material of a volcano might 
arise, with or without an earthquake. 

"This chapter may be closed with the four following conclusions, de- 
duced from Prof. Judd's researches and an examination of volcanic rec- 
ords, ancient and modern : 

"L A long period of quiescence is generally followed by an eruption, 
either long or violent. 

"II. A long-continued or very violent eruption is usually followed 
by a prolonged period of repose. 

"III. Feeble and short eruptions ordinarily succeed one another at 
brief intervals. 

"IV. The violence of a great eruption is generally inversely propor- 
tional to its duration. 

"In a single sentence, then, it may be stated, as deduced from the 
history of volcanic phenomena, specimens of which have been here de- 
tailed from personal experience, that such phenomena are due to one 
simple cause, viz. : the escape of imprisoned steam from masses of molten 
matters in the crust of the earth. That this is occasioned by the water 
from the surface of the land, or from the seas, gaining access to the sedi- 
mentary strata between the crust and the center, and becoming heated by 
the crushing movements, uplifts, depressions, and fractures, consequent 
on the secular cooling of our globe. And that this occurs whether we 
consider an eruption of the majestic Etna or the humblest bubbling hot 
spring. 



180 THE THEORY OF VOLCANOES 

"From Christmas, 1884, to the early part of January, 1885, a series 
of earthquake shocks occurred, extending over a large part of Southern 
Spain, but especially destructive of life and property in Grenada and 
Andalusia. Loud rumblings were heard, the ground was cleft, and men, 
animals and houses fell into the abyss. Its course was in some places 
from west to east, in others from south to north, according to the strata 
involved. The longest shock lasted fifty seconds. In some places there 
were three, in others, at a little distance, seventeen shocks ; pointing dis- 
tinctly to rupture and shock till the dislocated strata attained rest. There 
was, no doubt, great electrical disturbance from the immense friction 
attending the depression, as was shown by the flashes of lightning from 
a clear sky. 

' 'There is little need of adducing any more instances, although hun- 
dreds could be given, to show that earthquakes occur the world over in 
regions not now volcanic, and in some, like rock-ribbed New England, 
where there are no traces of volcanic activity in the present geological 
epoch. 

"The theories brought forward to account for earthquakes are numer- 
ous and fanciful in the extreme. No satisfactory connection with atmos- 
pheric conditions has been proved, except as these are an accessory, and 
possibly exciting causes. They occur everywhere, at all seasons of the 
year, at all times of the day, and in all geological formations and epochs ; 
they seem to follow no laws of periodicity, and, in many remarkable in- 
stances, are independent of volcanoes. Attempts have been made to 
connect their phenomena with the solar spots, terrestrial magnetism, the 
phases of the moon, and the tides, but without satisfactory results. 

"Prof. Guyot states that there can be no doubt that within the tropics, 
at least, earthquakes are most common at times of greatest atmospheric 
disturbance, but a precise relation between the two classes of phenomena 
has never been established. 

"Mallet is of opinion, from studying the data of eighteen and one-half 
centuries, that they are the least frequent before the autumnal equinox, 




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A SKULL Found in Main Street, St. Pierre, after Mont Pelee's Eruption. — (Copyright, May 21, 1902, "by 
The Press Publishing Company— New York World.) 



THE THEORY OF VOLCANOES 183 

while others regard the solstices and equinoxes as all-critical periods. 
Where the doctors so disagree it is a great satisfaction to be able, as far 
as present knowledge goes, to refer the earthquake as well as the volcano 
to a simple dynamic force depending on the secular cooling of the globe. 
The cause is the same in all, while the effects vary according to geological 
and wholly terrestrial circumstances." 

Richard A. Proctor, in "Notes on Earthquakes," gives the following 
valuable information on the same subject: 

"Earthquakes occur in all regions adjacent to active volcanoes. Thus 
the neighborhood of Vesuvius, Etna, and Teneriffe is infested by sub- 
terranean convulsions, which also are frequent over the neighborhood of 
the Greek Archipelago, and in Syria. In fact it seems probable that the 
whole of the Mediterranean basin and the surrounding lands for a dis- 
tance ©f many miles from its shores form a single earthquake district, 
whereof teneriffe, Vesuvius, Etna, Strumboli, the Archipeligac and the 
Syrian volcanoes are the safety valves. Then there is another earthquake 
district surrounding Hecla, or — some say — extending in a long line from 
the Jan Mayen volcano, through Hecla, the Azores, and the Cape Verde 
Islands, to St. Helena and Tristian d'Acunha. Japan, Sumatra, Java, and 
the islands of the Archipelago are liable to fearful earthquakes — some of 
the most destructive of which have occurred within the past few years. 
In the. West Indies there is another region to which must be referred 
those which have recently taken place. Probably this district belongs to 
the great earthquake region in Colombia and Peru, around the celebrated 
volcanoes Uotopaxi and Chimborazo. The southwestern district of the 
United States is also liable to earthquake shocks, apparently referable to 
the great Mexican volcanoes. There is one region of the earth in which 
subterranean shocks occur which cannot be referred to the neighborhood 
of volcanic vents. Upper India and all parts of Western India are liable 
to frequent earthquakes, insomuch that between the years 1800 and 1842 
no less than 162 earthquakes were recorded in these places. Undoubtedly 
we may place these disturbances to the great mountain chains which 



184 THE THEORY OF VOLCANOES 

traverse this part of Asia. The subterranean forces which upheaved the 
great Himalayan range, for instance, may be assumed to be still existent, 
though not for awhile dormant, or, 'perhaps,' says John Herschel, 'ex- 
pended in maintaining the Himalayas at their present elevation.' 

"On. the* other hand there are some regions wholly free from earth- 
quake shocks. Among such may be mentioned the great alluvial plains 
of America east of the Andes, the plains on the northeast of Europe and 
the northern parts of Asia. There are monuments, natural and artificial, 
which prove the absolute fixity of some regions. The slightest shock 
would have flung down that strange mass which is perched upon the 
summit of the Peter Botte mountain, 1,500 feet above the sea-level. 
Pompey's Pillar justifies the assertion of Strabo that Egypt has long been 
free from earthquakes ; though nothing short of subterranean convulsion 
could have flung down the more ancient obelisks which lie prostrate 
amidst the sands oif Western Lower figypt. Even that masterpiece of 
Egyptian labor, the Great Pyramid, though surpassing all other human 
erections in stability, shows unmistakable evidence of the slow action of 
subterranean forces. In Mexico, again in the very center seemingly of 
earth-rocking forces, there is a region in which rocks of grotesque figure 
attest the perfect immunity which the region has enjoyed even from incon- 
siderable shocks. The Cheese-ring in Devonshire is another instance of 
the kind of evidence we are considering. 

"And as there are instances of regions near to a disturbed district 
which yet are free from shocks, so there are spots liable to frequent shocks 
though the neighboring country for miles on every side is seldom (if ever) 
disturbed. Such is the district — very limited in extent—near Comrie, in 
Perth, where a year scarcely ever passes without a shock being experi- 
enced. 

"It would seem, also, as if regions free from subterranean disturbance 
for many centuries must not count upon permanent immunity. For a 
violent earthquake will often open out, as it were, a passage for subter- 
ranean impulses to new regions. 'The circles of concussion enlarge/ 



THE THEORY OF VOLCANOES 185 

says Humboldt, 'in consequence of a single extremely violent shock/ 
Since Cumana was destroyed (December 14, 1797) every shock of the 
southern coast is felt in the peninsula of Maniguarez, which before suf- 
fered no disturbance. Again, in the successive earthquakes which trav- 
ersed (in 1811-13) the Valley of the Mississippi, Arkansas and Ohio 
rivers, it was noteworthy how the motion traveled farther and farther 
northward on each occasion. It seemed as if the subterranean forces were 
gradually breaking a way through successive barriers. 

"No earthquake has ever happened the circumstances attending which 
have been so carefully noted as in the case of the earthquake of Calabria, 
in 1783. This celebrated earthquake began in February, 1783, and lasted 
until the end of 1786. The first shock threw down, 'in two minutes, 
nearly every house in all the cities, towns, and villages, from the western 
flanks o<f the Apennines, in Calabria Ultra to Messina in Sicily, and con- 
vulsed the whole country.' The second took place seven weeks later, and 
was scarcely less violent. Sir Charles Lyell mentions that 'the great 
granite chain which passes through Calabria from north to south, and 
attains the height of many thousand feet, was shaken but slightly by the 
first shock, but rudely by those which followed.' 

"And just as such a cloth would 'rumple up' as soon as the motion 
of one end was checked, so the soil of the Calabrian plains was found to 
be in some parts abnormally raised, in others as strangely depressed. 'In 
the town of Terranouva,' says Sir Charles Lyell, 'some houses were up- 
lifted above the common level, and others adjoining sunk down into the 
earth. In several streets the soil appeared thrust up, and abutted against 
the walls of houses ; a large circular tower of solid masonry, part of which 
withstood the general destruction, was divided by a circular rent, and one 
side was upraised, and the foundations heaved out of the ground.' 

"As might be expected, the soil did not continue unbroken by the 
violent shocks to which it was subjected. In the central parts of the 
disturbed region the earth opened so widely as to swallow up large 
houses. In Cannamaria many buildings were 'completely engulfed in one 



186 THE THEORY OF VOLCANOES 

chasm/ insomuch that not a trace of them was ever seen afterward. So 
violently did these chasms close their yawning jaws, that afterward, when 
excavations w r ere made for the recovery of valuables, the workmen found 
the contents of houses crushed into a compact mass with detached por- 
tions of masonry. In some instances persons were engulfed by one 
shock and thrown out again alive by the following one. 

"The magnitude of some of the fissures which were formed during 
this earthquake affords startling indications of the tremendous violence 
of the earth's internal throes. Grimaldi observed in the territory of San 
Fili a newly-formed ravine half a mile long and twenty-five feet deep, 
and another of similar dimensions, in Rosarno 1 . In the district of Plaisano 
three enormous fissures were formed : One a quarter of a mile long, about 
thirty feet in width, and 225 feet deep; the second, three-quarters of a 
mile long, 150 feet broad, and 100 feet deep; and the third, nearly a mile 
long, 105 feet broad, and thirty feet deep. 

"If any evidence were required as to the true nature of the disturb- 
ance, it would be found in the remarkable motions of masses slightly at- 
tached to the surface-soil. Paving-stones were flung into the air, masses 
of loose soil flung in showers over the surrounding objects. 

"In this earthquake 40,000 persons are supposed to have perished, 
and about 20,000 by the epidemics which followed. Dolomieu gives a 
painful account of the Calabrian cities. 'When I passed over to Calabria,' 
he writes, 'and first beheld P'olistena, the scene of horror almost deprived 
me of my faculties ; my mind was filled with mingled horror and compas- 
sion; nothing had escaped; all was leveled with the dust; not a single 
house or piece of wall remained ; on all sides were heaps of stone so desti- 
tute of form that they afforded no idea of there having ever been a town 
on this spot. The stench of the dead bodies still arose from the ruins. 
I conversed with many persons who had been buried for three, four, or 
even five days ; I questioned them respecting their sensations in so dread- 
ful a situation, and they agreed that, of all the physical evils they en- 
dured, thirst was the most intolerable; and that their mental agonv was 



THE THEORY OF VOLCANOES 187 

increased by the idea that they were abandoned by their friends, who 
might have rendered them assistance.' 

"The destruction of the Prince of Scilla and a great number of his 
vassals was one of the most remarkable events attending this deplorable 
catastrophe. He had persuaded his servants to seek their fishing-boats 
for safety, and went with them to encourage them. During the night of 
February 5, while they were sleeping, an enormous mass of earth was 
flung from Mount Jaci upon the plain near which the boats were moored. 
Immediately the sea rose more than twenty feet above the level of the 
plain. Every boat was sunk or dashed upon the beach, and hundreds of 
persons who had been sleeping on the plain were swept out to sea. The 
Prince and 1,430 of his servants perished. 

"One of the most remarkable earthquakes ever experienced was that 
which overthrew Riobamba on February 4, 1797. A district 120 miles 
long and 60 broad was shaken by an undulatory motion which lasted for 
four minutes, and a far wider district felt the effect of the disturbance. 
Within the space first named, in which the movement was more energetic, 
every town and village was leveled to the ground ; and many places were 
buried under large masses flung down from the surrounding mountains. 
Among these was the flourishing town of Riobamba. Preceded and ac- 
companied by no warning noises whatever, the terrific concussion in a 
few moments effected the complete desolation of the unhappy district. 
The earthquake was a singular combination of perpendicular, horizontal 
and rotary vibrations. So violent was the perpendicular, or as it may be 
termed, the explosive movement, that hundreds of the wretched inhabi- 
tants were flung upon the hill La Culla, several hundred feet high, on the 
further side of the small river Lican. Then came a horizontal movement, 
so rapidly succeeding the other that in many instances the furniture of 
one house was found beneath the ruins of another. 

"The subterranean noises heard during earthquakes are sometimes 
singularly striking. 'The nature of the noises is very various,' says Hum- 
boldt, 'rolling, rattling, clanking like chains, occasionallv like thunder 



188 THE THEORY OF VOLCANOES 

close at hand ; or it is clear and ringing, as if masses of obsidian or other 
vitrified matters were struck in caverns underground.' These noises were 
not only heard much farther off than they could be if they were trans- 
mitted in the air, but they travel much more rapidly. In 1744, when the 
great eruption of Cotopaxi took place, the subterranean noises were heard 
at Honda, on the Rio Maddelena. The crater of Cotopaxi, 17,000 feet 
above the level of Quito, is separated from it 'by the colossal mountain- 
masses of Quito, Pasto, Papayan, by innumerable valleys and precipices, 
and by an actual distance of no less than 500 geographical miles.' The 
eruption which took place in the Island of St. Vincent on April 30, 18 12, 
produced subterranean noises resembling, the loudest peals of thunder in 
Caracas, in the plains of Calabozo, and on the banks of the Rio Apure, 
a distance of upward of 700 geographical miles. 

"We are so in the habit of regarding the earthquake as an agent of 
destruction that it may sound paradoxical to assert that the phenomenon 
is surpassed by no other as a regenerative and restorative agent. Yet this 
is strictly the case. But for earthquakes our continents would contin- 
ually — however slowly — diminish in extent through the action of the sea- 
waves upon their borders, and of rain and rivers on their interior surfaces. 
'Had the primeval world been constructed as it now exists,' says Sir John 
Herschel, 'time enough has elapsed, and force enough directed to that 
end has been in activity, to have long destroyed every vestige of land.' 
It is to the reproductive energy of the earth's internal forces that we are 
alone indebted for the very existence of dry land. To the same cause, 
undoubtedly, we owe that gradual process of change in the configuration 
of continents and oceans which has been for ages and still is in progress — ■ 
a process the benefit derived from which cannot possibly be called in 
question. Our forests and our fields derive their nourishment from soils 
prepared, for long ages, beneath the waves of ocean; our stores of coal 
and of many other important minerals have been in like manner pre- 
pared for our use during the long intervals of their submergence; we 
build our houses even with materials many of which owe their perfect 



THE TflEORY OF VOLCANOES 189 

adaptation to our wants to the manner in which they have been slowly 
deposited on what was once the bed of ocean, and compressed to a due 
solidity and firmness of texture beneath its depths. If it is indeed true, as 
Humboldt asserts, that 'the destiny of man is in part dependent on the 
fashion of the outer crust of the globe, on the partitioning of continents, 
on the direction of the mountain chains which traverse them, and on the 
distribution of land and water,' then we must look upon the earthquake 
as the most important of all agencies which tend to the renovation of our 
terrestrial globe. So far from dreading lest the earth's subterranean 
forces should acquire new energies, we ought rather to fear lest they 
should lose their force. We may, therefore, gladly hail the opinion of the 
great geologist who asserts that 'the energy of subterranean movements 
has always been uniform as regards the whole earth. The force of earth- 
quakes,' adds Lyell, 'may for a cycle of years have been invariably con- 
fined, as it is now, to large but determinate spaces ;' gradually, however, 
this force shifts in position, so that other regions, for ages at rest, become 
in their turn the grand theater of action. 

"Geology shares with astronomy the interest arising from the study 
of the life of worlds. In the star-depths we see uncounted millions of 
suns of many orders — in size, in structure, and in condition — but each 
probably like our own in being the center of its family of planets. In our 
sun we study the one star near enough to present to us the general fea- 
tures of sun-life." 

John Milne, in "Earthquakes and Other Earth Movements," gives the 
following interesting facts : 

"During the twenty-four hours succeeding the destruction of Lima 
(October 28, 1746), 200 shocks were counted, and up to the 24th of 
February in the following year 45 1 shocks were felt. 

"At St. Thomas, in 1868, 283 shocks were counted in nine and a 
quarter hours. 

"Similar examples might be taken from the description of almost all 
destructive earthquakes of which we have records. For a large earth- 



190 THE THEORY OF VOLCANOES 

quake to occur, and not to be accompanied by a train of succeeding earth- 
quakes, is exceptional. Sometimes we find that a large number of small 
earthquakes have occurred without a large one being felt. Seismic storms 
of this description have happened, even in England — for instance, in the 
year 1750, which appears to have been a year of earthquakes for many 
portions of the globe. 

"In this year, which is known as the 'earthquake year/ shocks were 
felt in England as follows : On March 14, in Surrey; March 18, in south- 
west England; April 2, at Chester; June 7, at Norwich; August 23, in 
Lincolnshire; September 30, Northamptonshire. 

"Synchronism of earthquakes. — Orie of the first writers who drew 
attention to the fact that two shocks of earthquakes have been felt simul- 
taneously at distant places was David Milne, who published a list of these 
occurrences. 

"In two instances, February and March, 1750, shocks were simul- 
taneously felt in England and Italy. In September, 1833, shocks appear 
to have been simultaneously felt in England and Peru. These, and many 
other similar examples, are discussed by Mallet, who thinks, with Milne, 
that these coincidences are in every probability matters of accident. Ac- 
cording to Fuchs, Calabria and Sicily appear often to have had earth- 
quakes at the same time, as for instance in 1169, 1535, 1638. when the 
town Euphemis sunk, and in the years 1770, 1776, 1780, and 1783. 

"A remarkable example of coincidence occurred on November 16, 
1827, when a terrible earthquake was felt in Colombia, and at the same 
time a shock occurred on the Ochotsk plains, nearly antipodal to each 
other. 

"Kluge also gives a large number of instances of simultaneous earth- 
quakes; thus, on January 23, 1855, on the same clay that ^'ellington. 
New Zealand, so severely suffered, there was a heavy earthquake in the 
Siebengeberge, and also in North America. To this might be added th* 
fact that the last destructive earthquake in Japan occurred within a few 
davs of this time. 



THE THEOBY OF VOLCANOES 191 

"Inasmuch as many phenomena, like the motion of the tides, the rise 
and fall of the barometer, fluctuations in temperature, are all more or less 
directly connected with the relative position of our planet with regard 
to the sun and moon, any coincidence between the phases of these bodies 
and the occurrence of earthquakes more or less involves a time relation- 
ship with the other phenomena resultant on lunar and solar influence. 

"Earthquakes and the position of the moon. — Many earthquake in- 
vestigators have attempted to show the connection between earthquakes 
and the phases of the moon. 

"The first and most successful worker in this branch of seismology 
was Professor Alexis Perrey, of Dijon, who, after many years of arduous 
labor in tabulating and examining catalogues of earthquakes, declared that 
they were more likely to occur at the following periods than at others. 

"i. They are more frequent at new or full moon (syzygies) than 
at half moon (quadratures). 

"2. They are more frequent when the moon is nearest the earth 
(perigee) than when she is farthest off (apogee). 

"3. They are more frequent when the moon is on the meridian than 
when she is on the horizon. 

"One of the earliest records of a severe earthquake and a volcanic 
eruption occurring simultaneously is found in the accounts of the destruc- 
tion of Herculaneum and Pompeii. The throwing up of Monte Nuovo in 
the neighborhood of Pozzuoli was accompanied with a dreadful earth- 
quake. 

"In 1868 the earthquake of Arequipa was accompanied by the opening 
of the volcano Misti, on its north side. The distance of the volcano is 
about fourteen miles, 

"Earthquakes consequent on the explosion of steam. — Humboldt re- 
garded volcanoes and earthquakes as the results of a common cause, 
which he formulated as 'the reaction of the fiery interior of the earth 
upon its rigid crust.' Certain investigators, who have endeavored to 
reduce Humboldt's explanation to definite limits, have suggested that 



192 THE THEORY OF VOLCANOES 

earthquakes may be due to sudden outbursts of steam beneath the crust 
of the earth, and its final escape through cracks and fissures. 

"Admitting that steam may accumulate by separating out from the 
interior of our globe, its sudden explosion might be brought about by 
its own expansive force or by the movements in the bubbling mass from 
which it originated. 

"Others, however, rather than regard the steam as being a primeval 
constituent of the earth's interior, imagine it arises from the gradual 
percolation of water from the surface of the earth down to volcanic foci, 
into which it is admitted against opposing pressures, by virtue of capil- 
lary action. 

"Mallet, in his account of the Neapolitan earthquake, shows that the 
whole of the observed phenomena can be accounted for by the expansive 
force exerted on its walls rent open. Just as at the Geysers we hear 
the thud and feel the trembling produced by the sudden evolution and 
condensation of steam, so may steam by its sudden evolution and con- 
densation in the ground beneath us give rise to a series of shocks of vary- 
ing intensity, accompanied by intermediate motions — that is to say, a 
motion which, as judged by our feelings, is not unlike many earthquakes. 
Often it may happen that the result of the explosion may be the produc- 
tion of a fault, or at least a fissure; and thus in the resulting movements' 
we may have a variety of vibrations, some being those of compression 
and distortion, produced by the blow of the explosion, and others being 
those of distortion alone, produced by the shearing action which may have' 
taken place by the opening of the fault. Sometimes one set of these vibra- 
tions may be prominent, and sometimes the other. Thus, when we say 
that an earthquake has shown evidence by the nature of its vibrations that 
it was produced by a fault, this by no means precludes the possibility that 
an explosion of steam may also have been connected with the production 
of the disturbance. Mallet threw out the suggestion that the opening of 
fissures beneath the ocean might admit water to volcanic foci. During 
the time that the water was in the spheroidal state the preliminary tre- 



THE THEOEY OF VOLCANOES 193 

mors, so common to many earthquakes, wc uld be produced. These would 
be followed by the explosion, or series of explosions, constituting the 
she :k or shocks of the earthquakes. 

"The chief reasons for believing that the earthquakes of Northeast :. 
Japan are partly due to explosive efforts are : 

"T. That the greater number of disturbances, perhaps ninety per 
cent., originate beneath the sea. where we may imagine that the grc 
under the super:::: umt ent hydrostatic pressure, is continuously be::::; sat- 
urated with moisture. 

"2. Many of the diagrams show th?t the prominent vibrations, :: 
which there are usually from one to three, in a given disturbance have 
the same character as those produced by an explosive like dynamite, the 
greatest and probably the most rapid motions being inward toward the 
origin. 

"It may here be remarked that a very large prop::'::::: ;: the destruc- 
tive earthquakes of the world have originated beneath the sea, as has 
often been testified by the succeeding sea waves. Also, it must be :':- 
served, that earthquake ;::::::r:es are chiefly those which have a coast- 
line sloping at a s:e:; angle beneath the sea — that is :: say. earthquakes 
are frequent along coasts bordered by deep water. 

"The earthquake which, in 1840. caused 1 [ount Cernans. in the Jyra 
to fall is also attributed to the solvent action of waters in undermining its 
foundations. This undermining action was in a great measure probably 
due to a large spring, which, twenty-five years previously, had iisa] - 
peared. and which subsequently may possibly have been slowly disinte- 
grating the foundations of the mountain. Earthquakes :: this :rder 
would be principally confined to districts where there are r : ks 
are more or less soluble, as. for instance, rock salt, gypsum ..- I lime- 

O - J- 

stone." 

In his "Notes on the Volcanoes of the Hawaiian [slan Is" Walter T. 

Brigham. A. M., gives the following interesting information about vol- 
anoes in our own territorv : 



194 THE THEORY OF VOLCANOES 

"In a letter dated September 27, 1855. Mr. Coan says : 'On the even- 
ing of the nth of August a small point, glowing like Sirius, -was seen 
at the height of 12,000 feet on the northwestern slope of Mauna Loa. 
This radiant point rapidly expanded, throwing off coruscations of light, 
until it looked like a full-orbed sun.' 

"Sixty-five days after, the fissure which permitted the escape of the 
lava was still open, and in awful activity. The stream was flowing di- 
rectly toward Hilo and there were no valleys or ridges of sufficient size 
to turn its course. The inhabitants of this beautiful village were exceed- 
ingly anxious and made frequent excursions to the scene of the lava-flow. 
On the 2d of October, Mr. Coan, with a party of friends, passed through 
-the thick forest, following the course of the Wailuku, and on the 5th 
reached the lava-stream early in the morning at a narrow point, where it 
was about three miles wide. Tn some places it spread out into wide lakes 
and seas, apparently from five to> eight miles broad, enclosing, as is usually 
the case, little islands not flooded by the fusion.' Mr. Coan continues in 
this letter, which is dated October 15, 1855 : 

" 'Early on Saturday, the 6th, we were ascending our rugged path- 
way amidst steam and smoke and heat which almost blinded and scathed 
us. At ten we came to open orifices down which we looked into the fiery 
river which rushed furiously beneath our feet. Up to this we had come 
to no open lake or stream of active fusion. We had seen in the night 
many lights like street-lamps, glowing along the slope o>f the mountain 
at considerable distances from each other, while the stream made its way 
in a subterranean channel, traced only by these vents. From ten a. m. 
and onward these fiery vents were frequent, some of them measuring ten, 
twenty, fifty, or one hundred feet in diameter. In one place only we saw 
the river uncovered for thirty rods and rushing down a declivity of from 
ten to twenty-five degrees. The scene was awful, the momentum incred- 
ible, the fusion perfect (a white-heat), and the velocity forty miles an 
hour. The banks on each side of this stream were red-hot, jagged and 
overhanging, adorned with burning stalactites and festooned with im- 



THE THEORY OF VOLCANOES 195 

mense quantities of filamentose, or capillary glass, called 'Tele's hair." 
From this point to the summit crater all was inexpressibly interesting. 

" 'Valve after valve opened as we went up, out of which issued "fire 
and smoke and brimstone," and down which we looked as' into the cav- 
erns of Pluto. The gases were so pungent that we had to use the great- 
est caution, approaching a stream or orifice on the windward side, and 
watching every change or gyration of the breeze. Sometimes whirlwinds 
would sweep along, loaded with deadly gases, and threatening the unwary 
traveler. After a hot and weary struggle over smoking masses of jagged 
scoriae and slag, thrown in wild confusion into hills, cones, ridges, and 
spread out over vast fields, we came at one p. m. to the terminal or sum- 
mit crater (not Mokuaweoweo). 

' 'This we found to be a low elongated cone, or rather series of cones, 
standing over a great fissure in the mountain. Mounting to the crest of 
the highest cone we expected to look down into a great sea of raging 
lavas, but instead of this the throat of the crater, at the depth of one 
hundred feet, was clogged with scoriae, cinders, and ashes, through which 
the smoke and gases rushed up furiously from seams and holes. One 
orifice within this cone was about twenty feet in diameter, and was con- 
stantly sending up a dense column of blue and white smoke which rolled 
off in masses and spread over all the mountain, darkening the sun, and 
obscuring every object a few rods distant. So toppling was the crest of 
this cone, so great the heat, and so deadly the gases, that we could find 
no position where we could look down the throat or orifice ; and could we 
have done so, it is not probable that we should have seen the deep foun- 
tain below us, as the lavas were forced up its hot chimney from the 
burning bowels of the earth. I have no doubt that the point at which 
the igneous river flowed off in its lateral duct was at least five hundred, 
perhaps a thousand, feet below us. 

" 'The summit cone which we ascended was about one hundred feet 
high, say five hundred feet long and three hundred broad at its base. 
Several other cones below us were of the same form and general character, 



196 THE THEOKY OF VOLCANOES 

presenting the appearance of smoking tumuli along the upper slope of 
the mountain. As you descend the mountain these become lower and 
less frequent, but here the)' are the rims or jagged jaws of those orifices 
through which we look into that subterranean tube of angry fusion which 
hurries with fearful speed down the side of the mountain. The molten 
stream first appears some ten miles below the fountain crater, and as we 
viewed it rushing out from beneath the black rocks, and, in the twinkling 
of an eye, diving again in its fiery den, it produced indescribable feelings 
of awe and dread. 

" 'This summit crater I estimate at twelve thousand feet elevation; the 
principal stream (there are many lesser and lateral ones), including all 
its windings, sixty miles long ; average breadth, three miles ; depth, from 
three to three hundred feet, according to the surface over which it flowed. 
The present eruption is between those of 1843 an d 1852, and from our 
high tower we could see them both and trace their windings. 

" 'Early on Monday we decamped and set our faces for Kilauea, dis- 
tant some thirty-five miles, hoping by a forced march to reach it at night. 
At eight a. m. we passed the seat of the grand eruption of 1852, and trav- 
eled for miles on its cinders. A little steam only issues from that cone 
whose awful throat, in 1852, sent up a column of glowing fusion to the 
height of a thousand feet. We explored Kilauea, and on Thursday 
reached Hilo. 

' 'Hilo is now in a state of thoughtful suspense. The great summit 
fountain is still playing with fearful energy and the devouring stream 
rushes madly down toward us. It is now about ten miles distant — nearly 
through the woods, following the right bank of the Wailuku, and heading 
directly for our bay. 

' 'October 22. It is now seventy-two days since the eruption com- 
menced and the fountain is in full force. The matter disgorged is of the 
same general character as in former eruptions. We saw nothing new. 
Among the salts, sulphur and sulphate of lime are the most abundant 
They are scattered freely at several points along the line of flow.' 



THE THEORY OF VOLCANOES 197 

"Mr. Coan, it will be seen, struck the flow at a point above the term- 
inus and followed it to the source. On his return he determined to cut 
through the forest and meet the stream. Following a branch of the 
Wailuku in a drenching rain, which made the stream almost impassable, 
he thus describes the scene : 

" 'So soon as we entered this stream we found it discolored with pyro- 
ligneous acid from burning wood, whose odor and luster became more 
and more positive the further we advanced up the stream. The discolora- 
tion also became more apparent as we proceeded, until the water was 
almost black. This showed that the lava flow had crossed the head waters 
of the stream and its small tributaries, consuming the forest and jungle, 
and sending down what could not be evaporated of the juices to mingle 
with the stream. 

" 'A little before sundown our guide led us at right angles from the 
stream we had been threading for six hours, and in a few minutes the 
fires of the volcano glared upon us through the woods. We were within 
six rods of the awful flood which was moving sullenly along on its mis- 
sion toward Hilo. Thrusting our poles into the lava, we stirred.it, and 
dipped it up like pitch, taking out the boiling mass and cooling all the 
specimens we desired. We were on the right or southern verge of the 
stream, and we also found that we were about two miles above its term- 
inus, where it was glowing with intense radiance and pushing its molten 
flood into the dense forest, which still disputed its passage to the sea. 

" "We judged the stream to be two or three miles wide at this point, 
and over all this expanse, and as far as the eye could see above, and down 
to the end of the river, the whole surface was dotted with countless fires, 
both mineral and vegetable. Immense trees, which Had stood for hours, 
or for a day, in this molten sea, were falling before and below us, while 
the trunks of those previously prostrated were burning in great numbers 
upon the surface of the lava. 

'You are aware that the great fire-vent on the mountain discharges 
its floods of incandescent minerals into a subterranean pipe which extends. 



198 THE THEORY OF VOLCANOES 

at the depth of from fifty to two hundred feet, down the side of the moun- 
tain. Under this arched passage the boiling lava hurries down with 
awful speed until it reaches the plains below. Here the fusion spreads 
out under a black surface of hardened lava some six or eight miles wide, 
depositing immense masses which stiffen and harden on the way. Chan- 
nels, however, winding under this scorified stratum conduct portions of 
the lava down to the terminus of the stream, some sixty-five miles from its 
high fountain. Here it pushes out from under its mural arch, exhibiting 
a fiery glow, across the whole breadth of the stream. Where the ground 
is not steep, and where the obstructions from trees, jungle, depressions, 
etc., are numerous, the progress is slow, say one mile a week. 

" 'On the evening of our arrival we encamped within ten feet of the 
flowing lava, and, as before stated, on the southern margin of the stream, 
some two miles above its extreme lower points. Here, under a large tree, 
and on a bank elevated some three feet above the igneous flood which 
moved before us, we kept vigils until morning. During the wkole night 
the scene was indescribably brilliant and sublime. The greater portion of 
the vast area before us was of ebon blackness, and consisted of the 
hardened or smouldering flood which had been thrown out and deposited 
here in a depth of from ten feet to one hundred. 

' 'Not only was the lava, as aforesaid, gushing out at the end of this 
layer, but also at its sides. These lateral gushings came out before and 
behind us, and two-thirds surrounded our camp during the night, so that 
in the morning, when we decamped, the fusion was just five feet, by 
measurement, in front of us, six feet in our rear, and three feet, or the 
diameter of the trunk of our camp-tree, on our left. The drenching rain 
and our chilled condition induced us to keep as near the fire as we could 
bear it. Evening and morning we boiled our tea-kettle and fried our ham 
upon the melted lava, and when we left, our sheltering tree was on fire.' 

"M. Dufresnoy declares that lavas, to be compact and crystalline, must 
have cooled on a slope of less than 3 degrees. This statement has been 
proved incorrect by Sir Charles Lyell in his valuable 'Memoirs on the 




LOUIS H. A.YME, OF CHICAGO. U. S. Consul at Guadeloupe, Who Visited St. Pierre Immediately After 
the Eruption of Mont Peleeand Cabled His Government for Aid. — (Copyright, May 21, 1902, by The Press 
Publishing Company— New York World.) 



THE THEORY OF VOLCANOES 201 

Lavas of Etna,' and on the Hawaiian Islands slopes of every degree of 
inclination occur. I have measured streams that have consolidated on 
angles of from 10 degrees to 90 degrees, and in all cases they were con- 
tinuous. Rev. Mr. Coan has done even more, and I quote his 
own words : 'On the mountain and in Kilauea I took the angles of sev- 
eral lava-streams, one of 49 degrees, another of 60 degrees, and two of 80 
degrees each ; several streams on the mountain flowed down banks of 
scoriae twenty-five and thirty feet high. The fusion was complete — the 
streams cooled in a perfect state. 

" 'I saw thin strata, say one inch thick or less, which had flowed down 
the face of perpendicular rocks, adhering to the rocks like paste, and thus 
cooling.' " 

THE ERUPTION OF KRAKATOA, AND SUBSEQUENT PHE- 
NOMENA. 

In May, 1680, an eruption appears to have broken out at Krakatoa, 
of which we have unfortunately only very meagre accounts in the writ- 
ings of Vogel and Hesse. Great earthquakes are said to have been felt 
in the neighborhood, and vast quantities of pumice to have been ejected, 
which covered all the surrounding seas. The eruption seems to have 
continued with little intermission till the November of the following year, 
and to have destroyed the rich tropical forests that covered the island. 
Which of the volcanic cones composing Krakatoa was then in eruption is 
not certainly known, but it may be plausibly conjectured that it was Per- 
boewatan, upon the slopes of which conspicuous and very fresh lava- 
streams of enstatite-dacite are recorded as being seen by several later 
autkors. The eruption at this time seems to have been of the continual 
moderate character by the repetition by which the small cones occupying 
the greater part of Krakatoa, and filling up the vast submerged crater, 
had been formed. 

From the effects of this outburst, however, Krakatoa soon recovered, 
and the event seems to have been s© far forgotten that doubts have been 



202 THE THEORY OF VOLCANOES 

expressed as to the accuracy of the narratives recording it. For these 
doubts there do not seem to be any very good reasons. The rich vegeta- 
tion which clothed the island made. the inhabitants of the neighboring 
shores and passers in ships forget the terrible forces which slumbered 
beneath a scene of so much beauty. Some, however, who landed on the 
island and made their way into the most impenetrable forests, declared 
that they had met with hot springs, and one such spring is indicated on 
the Admiralty chart of the island. 

Six or seven years ago> it became evident that the volcanic forces, 
which for nearly two centuries had remained dormant beneath the Sunda 
Strait, were once more awakened into activity. Earthquakes were of 
frequent occurrence, and during one of these, on September the ist, 1880, 
the lighthouse on Java's First Point was seriously injured. These earth- 
quakes were felt as far away as North Australia. 

On the morning of Sunday, May the 20th, 1883, booming sounds like 
the sounding of artillery were heard at Batavia and Buitenzorg, which 
towns are situated nearly 100 English miles from Krakatoa, and for 
many hours a rattling of the doors and windows maintained in these 
towns and in all the neighboring villages ; on board a mail-steamer pass- 
ing through the Strait, it was noticed that the compass-needles were 
violently agitated. 

On the morning of May 21st a sprinkling of ashes was noticed to fall 
at Telok Betong and Semanka, on one side of the Strait, and at Buiten- 
zorg and the mountains around that place on the other. But it was not 
till the evening of the same day that a steam-column, issuing from Kra- 
katoa, revealed to the inhabitants of the district the true locality of the 
disturbance which had been going on for two days. On the 22d of May, 
at 8 p. m., the captain of a vessel passing close to Krakatoa was able to 
see that the dome-shaped mass of vapor issued from the lower parts of 
the island, and not from the top of the peak of Rakata ; a succession of 
fiery flashes, each followed by a loud explosion, accompanied the dis- 
charge of fragments of pumice and dust into the atmosphere, while vivid 



THE THEORY OF VOLCANOES 203 

flashes of lightning were seen playing around the vapor-column. Much 
of the pumice and dust fell beyond the limits of the island, and on May 
the 23d a ship encountered a large quantity of this pumice off Flat Cape, 
in Sumatra, which was found to increase in amount until Krakatoa was 
passed. The pumice was then floating out into the Indian Ocean. 

It is evident from these accounts that Krakatoa had re-entered on a 
phase of moderate (Strombolian) activity, similar to that which it had 
exhibited for some months during the years 1680 and 1681. That the 
outburst was one of considerable violence, however, especially at its com- 
mencement, was shown by the fact that the commander of the German 
war-vessel, Elizabeth, estimated the height of the dust-column issuing 
from the volcano as 11 kilometers (36,000 feet, or 7 miles) ; and falls 
of dust were noticed at the distance of 300 miles. 

On May the 26th an excursion party was formed at Batavia and 
proceeded in a steam vessel to the scene of the eruption. They reached 
the volcano on the Sunday morning, May the 27th, after witnessing, 
during the night, several tolerably strong explosions, which were accom- 
panied by earthquake shocks. Krakatoa and the adjoining islands were 
seen to be covered with fine white dust like snow, while the trees on the 
northern parts of Krakatoa and Verlaten Islands had been, to a great 
extent, deprived of their leaves and branches by falling pumice — a fate 
which, those of Lang Island and Polish Hat, as well as on the Peak of 
Rakata, had to a great extent escaped. 

It was then seen that it was the cone of Perboewatan which was in 
activity — explosions occurring at intervals of from five to ten minutes, 
and each of these explosions being attended with the uncovering of the 
liquid lava in the vent, whereby the overhanging steam-cloud was lighted 
up and glowed for a few seconds. The column of vapor was estimated 
as rising to a height of less than 10,000 feet, and the fragments of pumice 
being shot to the height of about 600 feet. It appears from these accounts 
that the violence of the eruption had somewhat diminished since the first 
detonations, which were heard so far off and were accompanied by so 



204 THE THEORY OF VOLCANOES 

lofty a vapor-cloud. From some of the accounts, however, it appears 
that certain of the explosions were of exceptional violence, and that pieces 
of pumice were thrown to very great heights in the atmosphere; for it 
is said that they were caught by the upper currents of the air and carried 
away in a direction opposite to that toward which the wind was blowing 
at the time. The noise made by the explosions, and the hurtling of the 
ejected fragments in the air, is said to have been so great that when a 
rifle was discharged its sound might be compared to "the popping of a 
champagne-cork amid the hubbub of a banquet." 

On August nth, however, the island was visited by Captain Ferze- 
naar, the chief of the topographical staff of Bantam. Sailing along the 
northeast side of the island in a native boat he was able to make a sketch 
of that part of the island, the heavy masses of vapor and dust driven by 
the wind preventing him from examining the other portions of the island. 
By this time the forests of the whole of Krakatoa appear to have been 
completely destroyed, only a few trunks of trees being left standing above 
the thick covering of pumice and dust. This mantle of dust near the 
shores was found to be 20 inches in thickness. 

Three large vapor-columns were seen ascending and carrying up im- 
mense clouds of dust and pumice from as many craters, one of these 
being the original crater of Perboewatan, while the other two were in 
the center of the island. Of the latter, one was probably the original 
crater of Danan, enlarged and deepened by the explosive action so as to 
diminish the height of the cone, while the other crater seems to have 
been opened at the northern foot of Danan. But besides these three prin- 
cipal craters no fewer than eleven other foci of eruption would be ob- 
served on the visible portions of the island, from which smaller steam- 
columns issued and ejections of dust took place. 

It is evident, therefore, that at this period the activity of the volcanic 
forces in the island had increased in a remarkable manner, and that from 
all portions of the lower-lying parts of the island situated to the north 
of the Peak of Rakata, that is, from the areas within the walls of the 



THE THEORY OF VOLCANOES 205 

original crater, outbursts were going on. This account of the state of 
the volcano on August the nth is very interesting, indeed, as being the 
last which we have before the great paroxysm which occurred toward the 
end of the same month. 

The vessels which passed close to Krakatoa between the nth of Au- 
gust and the time of the great catastrophe reported a heavy rain of pumice 
and dust and constant loud explosions as taking place. On the 25th the 
dust had been carried to such a height as to begin to fall at Telok Betong, 
nearly fifty miles distant. 

The eruption which began on May the 20th, and culminated in the 
tremendous explosion of August the 7th, thus appears to have exhibited 
the following vicissitudes : Bursting out with somewhat sudden violence, 
the eruption from Perboewatan seems to have had sufficient force to 
carry the volcanic dust to various points along the shores of Java and 
Sumatra. 

The changes which took place in the forms of the islands, and in the 
depth of the sea around them, have been supposed by some to indicate a 
general elevation of the islands of the Krakatoa group, accompanied by 
a great subsidence of the central or crateral area. A careful study of 
these changes in the light of what is known to have taken place at other 
volcanic centers leads me to adopt a wholly different conclusion. 

The action going on within a volcanic vent during eruption is in all 
essential features identical with that which takes place in the throat of a 
geyser. In both cases we have a mass of heated liquid, in the midst of 
which large quantities of gaseous materials are being disengaged so as to 
escape into the atmosphere as the pressure is relieved, and these escaping 
gases carry up with them portions of the liquid in which they have been 
confined. 

In order, therefore, to determine the most probable moment of the 
origin of the wave, it has been considered best to deal only with the 
data obtained from the stations nearest to, and immediately surrounding, 
viz.: Calcutta, Zi-Ka-Wei (Shanghai), Bombay, Melbourne, Mauritius, 



206 THE THEORY OF VOLCANOES 

and Sydney ; at all which the records of the first passage of the wave are 
well defined and satisfactorily comparable, while their distances from 
Krakatoa are not so great as to make it likely that important variations 
of the velocity of the wave took place during the time occupied in reach- 
ing them. 

If T is the time of the origin of the wave, which is to be determined; 
t, the time of the passage of the wave at any station, d, the distance in 
degrees from the point of origin ; and V, the velocity of the waves trans- 
mission, assumed to be the same in all cases. 

The distance of Krakatoa from Batavia being i degree 22 minutes, 
the wave, with velocity before calculated, would reach the latter place in 
8 minutes, so that it would have been felt there at 3 hours 4 minutes, G. 
M. T., or 10 hours 11 minutes, local time. The gasometer shows a sud- 
den and most extraordinary increase of pressure at some time between 
10 hours 15 minutes and 10 hours 20 minutes a. m., local time, agreeing 
as exactly as with that above arrived at as could be expected from the 
somewhat rough character of the trace, the inertia of the recorder, and 
the possible error of the clock at a non-scientific establishment. 

The oscillations of the gasometer indicator were very numerous and 
very violent on the day of the great explosion, but following the maxi- 
mum increase just referred to, there appears to have been a maximum 
reduction of pressure between 10 hours 40 minutes and 10 hours 50 min- 
utes, local time, corresponding, therefore, with the maximum fall shown 
in the barometric traces of the wave. It has not been possible to connect 
any other of the gasometer indicator oscillations with any available re- 
corded barometric disturbances, and from this it must be inferred that 
the explosion at 2 hours 56 minutes, G. M. T., was far more violent in 
its character than any of the others. 

The intervals of time between the origin of the great wave and its 
first passage over the several stations, direct from Krakatoa ; as well as the 
time intervals between the successive subsequent recurrences of the wave 
in its progress round the earth, after passing through the antipodes 



THE THEORY OF VOLCANOES 207 

and again returning through Krakatoa ; together with the deduced veloci- 
ties of the wave's transmission, are shown in Table VI. 

Now, from Table VI. 'it will be found that the mean velocity of the 
wave for twenty-nine of these stations, in passing for the first time from 
Krakatoa to them, is 10 degrees 23 minutes per hour. The average 
velocity in the same direction between the first and third passages, over 
twenty-seven of the same stations, during which the wave completed the 
circuit of the earth, was reduced to 9 degrees .89 per hour ; the mean time 
occupied in the passage being 36 hours 24 minutes. For the next pass- 
age round the earth the mean velocity for eighteen of the stations was 
9 degrees .86 per hour, and the time occupied 36 hours 30 minutes ; while 
for the last observed passage over ten stations the mean velocity was 
90 degrees .yj per hour, and the period which elapsed was 36 hours 50 
minutes. 

The corresponding quantities for the alternate passages of the wave, 
extracted from Table VII., as follows: The mean velocity of the wave, 
while traveling from Krakatoa through its antipodes, to the same twenty- 
nine stations as before dealt with, is 10 degrees .47 per hour; for twenty- 
four the mean velocity between the second and fourth passages, during 
which also the circuit of the earth was completed, is 10 degrees .35 per 
hour, the mean time occupied being 34 hours 46 minutes ; while, for the 
next passage, which is also observed in this direction, thirteen stations 
give a mean velocity of 10 degrees .27 per hour, with a period of transit 
of 35 hours 4 minutes. 

The velocities observed at Mauritius and Loanda, the paths of the 
waves passing over which lies respectively within 20 degrees and 10 de- 
grees of the equator, are very nearly alike; the wave traveling to the 
west not being sensibly retarded; while that traveling to the east is so 
retarded. This may be caused by the paths of the waves falling entirely 
within the zone of the trade- winds, which both north and south of the 
equator blow from the east, and would, therefore, cause a relative retarda- 
tion of the wave traveling with the earth's rotation. 



208 THE THEORY OF VOLCANOES 

The path of the wave that passed over the Canadian and United 
States stations, and Havana, lies nearly on the meridian drawn through 
Krakatoa, and must have crossed both the polar circles very near the 
poles. The velocities obtained from these stations are peculiar. The 
direct wave from Krakatoa, which traveled nearly due north and close 
to the north pole, and its repetitions after passing around the earth in the 
same" direction, had nearly the same velocities as those observed at the 
European stations, with an apparent decided retardation in the intervals 
between the first and third passages, and (but to a less extent) between 
the third and fifth. The wave that passed through the antipodes before 
reaching the North American stations went nearly due south, close to 
the south pole ; and its velocity on this, its first partial passage round the 
earth, was very decidedly reduced; but in its next complete circuit, that 
between the second and fourth passages over the stations of North 
America, the velocity appears to have been much increased, almost reach- 
ing the full rate of the true sound-wave. It is difficult to account for 
this, but the fact seems to be indisputable. 

The first of the more distant tide gauges is that at Port in South 
Africa, 4,624 miles, with an interrupted sweep from Krakatoa. This 
gauge, although placed inside a bar, gives a very good diagram. It is on 
the scale of \y 2 inches to the foot, and 1 inch to the hour. The curve 
is quite smooth to 7 hours on the 27th, when an irregular oscillation 
commences sharply. This gradually increases to a height of 6 inches, 
when a distinctly higher wave, of a height of 1 foot 4 inches, is shown at 
17 hours 10 minutes. 

Eleven waves of an average interval of 65 minutes can be traced, 
although their height is much varied by interference. One cannot be 
sure that the 17 hours 10 minutes is that which should be taken as cor- 
responding to the 10 o'clock wave from Krakatoa, but it is apparently 
the commencement of a fresh series of waves. 

Let us see how thick a stratum this quantity would produce when 
spread out uniformly at a height of 70,000 feet over the entire globe. 



THE THEORY OF VOLCANOES 209 

If it were reduced to the form of a solid continuous layer, this quantity 
would, in such a case, equal .0003 inch in thickness, or a trifle less than 
that inferred by Dr. Hann on a different assumption to be a probable 
mean value. This quantity certainly seems to be rather microscopic, and 
it appears, prima facie, quite incapable of producing the transmissive or 
reflective which were witnessed. Before, however, we call in the aid 
©f any concomitants, or assume a larger quantity of material to have been 
ejected in the form of very fine dust, let us endeavor to arrive at some 
idea of the possible effect of such a quantity of dust alone. 

Ten. in 5 degrees 38 minutes. S. 106 E., Mr. J. YYcoldridge. writing 
in the "London and China Telegraph*' (January 16th. 1884), thus de- 
scribes the scene. After alluding to the eruption on August 27th. 1883. 
of the volcano, which was within sight, he says: "At sunset the heaven 
represented a very terrible appearance, the dense mass of clouds covered 
with a blood-red appearance, the sun being seen through the volumes of 
cloud being discharged by Krakatca." 

He also mentions the clouds at sunset being red and yellow. 

Prior to the convulsions of Mont Pelee, at "Martinique, in 1902. the 
most remarkable of volcanic eruptions in recent years was that of Kra- 
katoa. in the Straits of Sunda. in 1883. It is estimated that ash and 
fragments from this cone were lifted 50.000 feet in air, and that the 
finer particles of pumice were a year in reaching the earth again. With 
these ash layers drifting with the winds, the sunsets of that year were 
made remarkably brilliant and are remembered by most people old 
enough at the time to be attracted to the phenomenon. 

Xot only in this dust was the eruption made spectacular but vessels 
sailing the East Indian seas thereafter encountered such vast areas of 
floating pumice stone that navigation was seriously impeded. Gradually 
this stone became waterlogged and sank, however. Fifty thousand lives 
are said to have been lost in this eruption, and every vestige of life on 
that and neighboring islands destroyed. 

One of the noteworthy facts connected with the destructive upheaval 



210 THE THEOEY OF VOLCANOES 

of Krakatoa was that the humble peak, less than 3,000 feet in height, 
has attracted no special attention among scientists because of the region 
in which it stood. It was located in the midst of about fifty towering 
volcanic mountains, some of them 12,000 feet high, and most of them 
in almost chronic disturbance. In the midst of these surroundings little 
Krakatoa was overlooked until about ten years ago it broke out with 
terrible fury and wrought fearful loss of life and destruction of property! 

For the first few hours terrific explosions came every few minutes. 
The sea was driven back, and at every outburst black columns of smoke, 
dust and lava were sent mile? into the air. As the hours passed the 
explosions became more and more frequent. The concussions shattered 
stone walls, upset lamps and created general havoc hundreds of miles 
away. The explosions were heard over a sound zone covering one-thir- 
teenth of the earth's surface. All the towns and villages on the shores 
of Java and Sumatra bordering the straits were destroyed. The average 
height of the tidal wave which struck the shores of Java and Sumatra 
was fifty feet, and at many places it was much higher and was felt in 
all the ocean waters of the globe. A man-of-war lying off the Sumatra 
shore was carried a mile and three-quarters inland up a valley and left in 
a forest thirty feet above sea level. 

A large part of the Indian Ocean was showered with lava dust and 
mud to a depth of several inches, and in the immediate vicinity of Kra- 
katoa the sea was so thick with fallen lava dust that vessels pushed 
through it as though plodding through a field of broken ice. The whole 
northern portion of the island, with an average height of 700 feet above 
sea level, was submerged, and remains so to-day under 150 fathoms of 
water. 

The wonderful eruption of Krakatoa, which reddened the sunsets of 
the world for months, began with splendid display of colors, August 26. 
Captain Strachan, of the Anerly, when passing through the Straits of 
Banca, saw "an arch of light at sunset stretching to the zenith." 

In the evening of the same day, after the eruption had continued for 



THE THEORY OF VOLCANOES 211 

some hours, the Ardgowan, in latitude 7 54' S., longitude 85 ° 37' E., 
notices a "flare" and ''coppery-red colour" at sunset; and the Barbarossa, 
i° 42' S. and 93 12' E., at sunset observed "the whole sky a peculiar 
red, like bright polished copper." 

On the 27th the Simla, in 5 35' S., 88° E., observes the sky as "very 
hazy," and the barque Jonc, in latitude from 4 46' S. to 7 45' S., longi- 
tude 90 to 93 E., Captain Reid noticed that, from August 26th to 
28th, "the sun on rising had a very strange appearance, as though the 
earth were on fire." 

On August 27th, besides the observations we have already given 
from districts in Sumatra and Java adjacent to the volcano, we hear that 
at Batavia the sun on emerging from the cloud of smoke of the eruption 
was green, and Captain Strachan, of the ship Anerly, near N. Watcher 
Island, about ninety English miles northeast of Krakatoa, at 4:30 a. m., 
says : "Before daybreak the whole heavens were lighted up by a pale 
yellow light of changing hues, which lit up the entire ship and turned 
everything on board the same color. This lasted forty-five minutes and 
then died out. Daylight, such as it was, broke about 6 a. m." 

At a considerably greater distance, but still within sound of the erup- 
tion, we have the following account from Labuan Island, in which the 
cloud-haze and a green sun were clearly recognized by Captain the Hon. 
F. C. P. Vereker, of H. M. S. Magpie, among the effects of the outburst : 

"The noise of the detonations caused by Mount Krakatoa, resembling 
distant heavy cannonading, was distinctly heard by us and the inhabi- 
tants of the coast as far as Banguey Island on August 27th. The weather 
at the time was also much unsettled, with thick, hazy weather, and pecu- 
liar clouds to the southward, and the sun, while at a low altitude, as- 
sumed a greenish hue for several days." 

Farther off, again, towards the west, we have the series of observa- 
tions which include a green sun at Mullaittivu and Kokkulai, in Ceylon, 
gorgeous sunsets at Diego Garcia, the Seychelles, Reunion, Rodriguez 



212 THE THEORY OF VOLCANOES 

and Mauritius, and a smoky appearance and haze at the Seychelles, the 
St. Brandon Rocks (Car gados Garajos), and Diego Garcia. 

On the 28th, they are embraced by the appearances was more exten- 
sive, while ships not far from Java, such as the Ida, i° N. 108 42' E., 
Charlotte, 7 18' S. 106 12' E., Simla, 6° 12' S. 88° if E., Barbarossa, 
3 48' S. 93 30' E., and Salazic, g° S. 93 ° E., observe "a blood-red 
sunset with uninterruptedly hazy air for several days thenceforward," 
"hazy air," "sky very hazy," "a yellow glow and clear silvery light," 
"the sun reddish and the sky white," respectively, the glows appearing 
at Mauritius, the Seychelles, 7 , with more brilliancy than before. 

In the island of Java is a remarkable example of a volcano's suffer- 
ing from its own titanic forces. Papandayang, in 1772, undermined 
itself in an eruption to such an extent that its crater fell inward, taking 
down with it a district fifteen miles long and nearly six miles wide. More 
than forty villages were destroyed and 3,000 lives are said to have been 
lost. In this settling of the cone the height was reduced from 9,000 to 
5,000 feet. 

In the formation of a volcano the growth is that of cooling lava, 
which is erupted and flows down the sides of a gradually increasing shell. 
The eruption of lava tends to produce a much flatter cone than does ash, 
and in some volcanoes where there is a prevailing cool wind from a cer- 
tain direction the side of the crater to the windward is higher than on 
any other side. In eruption the character of the lava emitted may vary 
greatly in consistency, though coming from the same crater. 



CHAPTER XIII. 

MARTINIQUE IN ITS BEAUTY. 

Gay and Brilliant Under the Gloomy Mountain — Pen Pictures 
of the Scenery — The Story of the Empress Josephine — ■ 
The Terrors of the Fer de Lance, More Deadly Than the 
Cobra — An Earthquake Scare. 

The journals recording the frightful disasters in the islands of Mar- 
tinique and St. Vincent have a great deal to say of the sense of security 
of the inhabitants, but the volcanoes that have recently flamed forth as 
destroyers had an ancient reputation for harboring mysterious dangers. 
One of the most interesting and charming writers who has visited the 
fateful mountains, many years ago, is Mr. Frederick A. Ober, who< pub- 
lished his picturesque sketches under the head "Camps in the Caribbees," 
heading one of his communications with the lines : 

"To-morrow I sail for those cinnamon groves, 
Where nightly the ghost of the Caribbee roves." 

When on his way, in 1800, to the scene of the recent astounding deso- 
lation, he writes : 

"Up from Tobago, the island of Crusoe's adventures, I sailed, one 
week in June, for Barbados. Ten weeks of camp-life in that historic 
island had brought me rich returns, in rare birds and pictures of interest- 
ing scenes. The captain of a Nova Scotia schooner gave me passage 
from Barbados to the Isle of Martinique, good Captain Rudolph, who 
navigated his vessel so skillfully that we sighted the mountains of Mar- 
tinique on the morning of the second day; the same mountains I had 
first looked upon eighteen months previously, coming down from the 
north. 

"The wind was light ; flying-fish darted in all directions ; little sharp- 
prowed canoes came sailing in out of the distance, hailed us with cheerful 

213 



214 MARTINIQUE IN ITS BEAUTY 

bon jours, and disappeared again in the spray and mist. We sailed in 
under high, frowning cliffs, down which fell silver streams into the sea ; 
past broad fields of cane, smiling in the sunshine ; past long stretches of 
yellow sand, overtopped by silent palms; beneath a towering, gloomy 
mountain hiding its crest in a cloud. A shower came down from those 
impending clouds and pattered over deck and sea, ending as suddenly as 
it had commenced; and a rainbow, born of the mist and the sunshine, 
spanned the bay of St. Pierre from headland to headland, dissolving at 
either end above a little fishing-village, bathing-houses and boats, and 
nets, and beach, in glorious showers of light." 

He describes»the second time when he sailed into the Bay of St. Pierre, 
and the second time he looked upon the volcano rising above it. His 
account of the visit to the city destined to be the scene of the most awful 
destruction known in the annals of the world, is of increased interest, 
and throws upon the picture of untold horrors the light of other days : 
"The town is about a mile in length, straggling at the north away down 
the coast, ending in scattered villages ; and at one place, where a river 
makes a break in the cliffs, creeping up toward the mountains. A narrow 
belt between high cliffs and the sea, built into and under them ; the houses, 
of stone and brick, covered with brown earthen tiles, tier upon tier, climb- 
ing up to the hills. With the soft mellow tints of the tiles, the gray of the 
walls, the frequent clumps of tamarind and mango, and with the magnifi- 
cence of living green behind it, St. Pierre strikes one as a beautiful town 
— until he comes to analyze it. Then, the windowless loopholes — there 
is hardly a square of glass in the town, save in the stores — the flapping 
shutters, the conglomerate material used in its construction, combine to 
produce a feeling of revulsion. But, viewed from a vessel lying in the 
harbor, sufficiently remote to hide its incongruous elements, St. Pierre 
again appears charming, picturesque. 

'Aside from the hills that embrace the town and come down to the 
sea in bold spurs, forming an arc with a chord three miles in length, there 
is the noble Montague Pelee, above four thousand feet in height, a mass 



MARTINIQUE IN ITS BEAUTY 215 

of dark green with jagged outline, cleft into ravines and black gorges, 
down which run rivers innumerable, gushing from the internal fountains 
of this great volcano. 

"The streets are narrow but well-flagged, and every few squares is a 
fountain; and adown the gutters through them all run swift streams, 
carrying to the sea the refuse of the city. St. Pierre is the commercial 
port of the island, and there are many stores rilled with wines and wares 
of France. There are a fine cathe.dral, and a theatre of large capacity, 
to which for three months each winter a troupe from Paris draws 
crowded houses." 

Were these islands once a part of the continents? Certain it is, the 
adjacent islands of Dominica and St. Vincent, separated from these chan- 
nels less than thirty miles in width, are free from the scourge of the 
Lancehead. Nay, more ; it is recorded that, during the wars between the 
English and the Caribs, in the last century, the Lancehead was carried to 
the islands just named, but could not be made to live. 

Annually, during the crop season, many laborers are killed in each 
island, for this snake has its hiding places in the canes as well as in the 
forests. It has been so abundant in this garden that the pleasant walks 
and shady drives are nearly always deserted. A serpent over seven feet 
in length, killed in the garden, is shown in the Museum. 

Martinique is the largest of the Lesser Antilles, being about forty 
miles in length, and containing, it is estimated, about three hundred and 
eighty square miles. The surface is very uneven, the interior being one 
grand region of hills and mountains. The highest of these is Mount 
Pelee, over four thousand feet in height, northwest of the principal town, 
St. Pierre. There are many mineral springs in the mountains, two of 
which — one reached from St. Pierre and the other from Fort de France — 
are famous resorts for the inhabitants. 

Morne Rouge is a holy city; to it every year the people of the coast, 
high and low, make pilgrimage on foot. The church here is beautifully 
decorated, the interior containing valuable paintings and frescoings. The 



216 MARTINIQUE IN ITS BEAUTY 

Virgin is magnificently arrayed and enriched by the spoils of the faithful 
and credulous. All about are shrines and crosses and sacred mounts of 
Calvary; and near the town is a most charming grotto, containing an 
image of. the Virgin, overhung by tree-ferns, hollowed from a rock drip- 
ping with water, with a clear pool and fountain at its base. 

A little steamer runs between St. Pierre and Fort de France, the seat 
of government of the island, coasting the shore, past a most interesting 
landscape twenty miles, the banks high and precipitous, exhibiting many 
different strata, and affording to a geologist a glimpse of the manner in 
which the island is formed. Huge rounded hills come down to the sea, 
where they are abruptly cut down, looking like the halves of Dutch cheese, 
the slices smooth and straight. The summer rains had caused an accumu- 
lationof water in the hills above, and I counted eight streams pouring over 
the precipices, all of which a few days later would have disappeared. Half- 
way down, the surface slopes farther back from the shore, though there is 
but little cultivation until the bay of Fort Royal is reached. A large 
stone fortress, a large usine, or sugar refinery, an open park, a few gov- 
ernment buildings, and a river, are all that particularly claim attention. 

Fort de France was- originally known as Fort Royal, but this was 
before the days of republican rule. It is situated between two rivers, the 
Riviere Madame and the Riviere Monsieur ; the former, on the north, is 
very beautiful during its short length, especially near its embouchure; 
palms reflect themselves in the still water, and a church, on the bank, sees 
its image on the glassy surface. The' hills, such as hem in St. Pierre, 
here recede a greater distance from the shore, and the town occupies a 
low level plain, with wide streets crossing at right angles, lined with well- 
built wooden houses. There are few trees save in the park, wmich lies 
near the shore between fortress and towii. Here there are long and 
thickly planted rows of tamarinds and mangoes overshading the broad, 
level walks. Enclosed by this double row of trees is a large savane, or 
common, covered with a luxuriant carpet of grass, palace, and governor's 
residence, with large and handsome barracks for the troops. 



MARTINIQUE. IN ITS BEAUTY. 219 

Landing, I went, as a matter of course, to the consulate, where a pic- 
ture of an eagle, grasping the red man's arrows, and digging his claws 
into a prostrate shield, smiled serenely above an open doorway. The 
consul, a Massachusetts man, extended to me a warm welcome. He had 
been in the naval service, retiring wounded, and, being connected with 
influential politicians, has secured this mission to Martinique. It is well 
with what liberal hand our government rewards its wounded heroes, giv- 
ing the more importunate positions like this, where, with a salary of fif- 
teen hundred dollars, each year calls upon the incumbent of the office for 
an expenditure of at least two thousand. The British Consul had resided 
in Martinique fifteen years, and received a salary sufficient to maintain 
him in comfort. Within eighteen months the American consulate had 
had two representatives. As soon as one is prepared to execute duties, 
he is kicked out and room made for another. 

Knowing that the consul was from Boston, I was not surprised to 
see in his office an "Old Farmer's Almanack;" but I was greatly enlight- 
ened as to its uses when one day I saw him take it from its nail and 
gravely announce that, according to the tables for July, it was "time to 
take a drink." As the tables in that almanac are prepared for the lati- 
tude of Boston, I wondered at the genius that could adapt them to the 
latitude of Martinique; but it is probably owing to the fact that much 
latitude is allowed, and that there a drink is in order at any time. 

Through the aid of the consul, I secured a room and board in a private 
family, whose delightful dejeuners and suppers will long be a pleasant 
remembrance ; and may the good old mulattress who prepared them ful- 
fill her mission for many years to come! She could originate savory 
stews and ragouts from as nearly nothing as any cook it has been my 
misfortune to meet; her "ros-bif" was excellent; and with a few potatoes 
and a little flour and fat she could produce "pomme de terre a la Mar- 
tinique" — as she called it — that would make an exile from Erin howl 
with delight. With each plate a bottle of wine and a little twisted loaf of 
bread ; and after the dessert, of bananas, oranges and sapadillos, or soup- 



^20 MARTINIQUE IN ITS BEAUTY 

sops, came a decanter of rum, a little cup of black coffee with sugar, and 
cigarettes. My vis-a-vis at these delightful repasts was the Commissaire 
of Police, an ex-officer of the navy of France, and a Chevalier of the 
Legion of Honor. It need not be added that he was courteous and agree- 
able. 

The Creoles of Martinique, as well as the inhabitants coming from 
France, have but few vices, the chief of which is that they will smoke 
the vilest, rankest, most disgusting of cigars. These obnoxious fabrica- 
tions are of American tobacco, twisted by the hand of the negress, or 
mulattress, into a long cigar, called by the sailors "long-toms," and sold 
at a sou apiece. The better classes smoke cigarettes of imported French 
tobacco, and are as expert in rolling them when wanted as a Cuban ; but 
the negroes all, male and female, smoke the "long-toms." In enumerating 
the good qualities of my ancient cook, I overlooked the fact that from 
morning to night, while attending to her domestic duties, anxiously bend- 
ing over the pots and kettles, she never once relinquished the comforting 
weed. 

Through the kindness of the photographer of St. Pierre, Monsieur 
Hartmann, an amiable and accomplished gentleman, I was introduced 
into the cercle, or club, where French in its purity is spoken. The uni- 
versal language, however, is that of the common people, the patois, or 
provincial dialect ; and even the cultivated speak, colloquially, the French 
tongue in this, rude form. The prejudice against everything not exclu- 
sively French is exceedingly bitter. 

In the center of the principal square stands the statue of her of whom 
I came to learn. Majestic in poise, graceful in outline, carved of marble 
spotless as her own soul, Josephine stands calmly aloft, surrounded by 
a circle of magnificent palms; the orcodoxas, glories of the mountains, 
add their glorious crowns to that which adorns the head of the empress. 
For hours I have gazed on that beautiful creation, as, seated beneath the 
spreading tamarinds, I have striven to impress upon my memory an inef- 
faceable image of its loveliness. There is one view that is inexpressibly 



MARTINIQUE IN ITS BEAUTY 221 

beautiful, with the snow-white statue sharply outlined against a distant 
group of mountain-peaks, the Trois Pitons, which are sometimes deep 
blue, against light green, or partially obscured by drifting clouds. Against 
this background Josephine stands -out white as an angel. Another view, 
at a little distance, gives a background of tamarinds ; another that of the 
purple-green mango. From any position it appears a perfect composi- 
tion ; an inimitable grace pervades the sweep of the royal robes, and the 
whole suggests a master's hand. 

The statue fronts the sea, but the face is turned a few points south, 
so that it looks toward a line of hills, five miles away, nestled among 
which is the valley in which Josephine was born. The sentiment con- 
veyed in the look of wistful yearning in that sweet face, turned longingly 
to the scenes of her childhood, is as beautiful as truthful. In front is 
the Caribbean Sea; the great fort hides the hills from the view of one 
standing by the statue, but a few steps to the eastward brings them in 
sight. 

Upon a medallion of Napoleon, Josephine rests her left hand. On the 
pedestal, a bas-relief in bronze represents the famous coronation scene, 
recalling that extraordinary pageant, when Bonaparte surpassed all pre- 
ceding coronations in the magnificence of this, summoning the venerable 
Pius VII. from the Vatican to assist in his assumption of royalty. In 
the center, the Pope ; Napoleon, in the act of placing the crown upon the 
head of Josephine, who kneels before him. The inscriptions upon the dies 
are as follows : 

North: "L'an 1868. Napoleon III Regnant, Les Habitants de la 
Martinique out eleve ce monument a LTmperatrice Josephine. Nee dans 
cette Colonic" 

East: "Nee Le XXIII Juin, MDCCLVII." (Crown, shield, and 
eagle of France.) 

South : The bas-relief — Coronation scene. 

West : "Marie Le LX Mars, MDCCXCVI." (Draped shield, eagle, 
and crown.) 



222 MARTINIQUE IN ITS BEAUTY 

The statue is enclosed by a neat iron fence, and is further surrounded 
by a ring of palms, planted, I believe, at the time it was erected. In the 
distance, on a hill, is an old fort and a little chapel, where the Virgin 
Mother extends her hands in a benediction, and where a candle burns, 
bright by night and dim by day. 

As amateur photographer I sought a resident artist, Monsieur Fabre., 
who received and aided me cheerfully, especially when he learned that 
I bore a letter from our good friend Hartmann, of St. Pierre. In his 
capacious court-yard I was soon busily at work preparing my chemicals, 
wrapped in a vapor of collodion. I was suddenly awakened by a strange 
shock, as though some one had shaken me strongly and was about stand- 
ing me upon my head. At that instant, in rushed my friend, the photog- 
rapher, with loud cries : "Ah, mon Dieu ! Tremblement de terre ! Trem- 
blement de terre!" "Earthquake! Earthquake!" The ground shook, 
walls cracked, and, in common with every one else, I rushed into the 
street. There was the entire populace crowded together in terror, most 
of them wildly shrieking and gesticulating. The shock lasted but; a few 
minutes, and then all went, calmly back to their houses. After this the 
sky was as serene and blue, and the trees as quiet, a£ before, and I fin- 
ished my photographs of beautiful Josephine, who had been an. unmoved 
spectator of it all, without interruption. 

The town of Fort de France is intimately connected with scenes in 
the early life of Josephine, and of her parents. In 1755, Joseph Gaspard 
de La Pagerie, father* erf Josephine, returned to Martinique from France, 
whither he had been sent to school. That year war was declared be- 
tween England and France, and the young officer, first lieutenant of 
artillery, was actively engaged in erecting batteries at Fort de France, 
then, as now, the naval port of the island. He aided in the repulse of the 
English under General Moore in 1759, and took such active part in the 
second defense, in 1762, when the town was captured, that he was compli- 
mented by the general commanding the English forces and allowed to 
retire to his estates at Trois-Ilets. 



MARTINIQUE IN ITS BEAUTY 223 i 

In June, 1760, there was baptized in the church at Saint Louis, at 
Fort Royal, an infant, born the preceding May, and named Alexander 
de Beauharnais. who was destined to be the husband of Josephine. An 
aunt of Josephine was godmother to this child. The Marquis de Beau- 
harnais, father to Alexander, had been appointed governor of Martinique 
and the French colonies three years previously, with authority over all 
the respective governors of the other islands. Leaving Martinique for 
France in the following year, the Marquis left his infant son in charge of 
Madame de La Pagerie, grandmother to Josephine. This lady resided 
principally in Fort de France, and when Josephine attended school at 
the near convent, she was a frequent visitor at the house of her grand- 
mother, if indeed she did not reside with her. 

But the most interesting event in the history of the island was the 
marriage of the parents of Josephine, the register of which I found among 
the musty archives of the island, in Fort de France. The document is 
long, and though I have a fac-simile copy of that page in the ancient reg- 
ister containing it, I will give but the substance here. It states that 
"Messire Joseph Gaspard de Tascher, chevalier, seigneur de La Pagerie, 
native of the parish of St. Jacque du Carbet, of said island of Martinique, 
lieutenant in the artillery, son in legitimate marriage of Messire Joseph- 
Gaspard de Tascher, chevalier, seigneur de La Pagerie, and of Madame 
Marie-Francoise Boureau de La Chevalerie, living in the town of Port 
Royal," was married to demoiselle Rose-Claire des Vergers de Sannois, 
native of the town of the parish of Trois-Ilets, daughter in legitimate 
marriage of Messire Joseph des Verges de Sannois and of dame Marie- 
Catherine Brown, natives of and dwellers in the parish of Trois-Ilets," 
etc. 

Thus we have in this register of marriage, dated November the ninth, 
1 76 1, the names and rank of the parents and grandparents of Josephine, 
and, what is of equal importance, their place of residence at that time, 
only eighteen months previous to her birth. 

Let us turn for a moment to her biographies. One or two will suffice 



224: MARTINIQUE IN ITS BEAUTY 

to show how inaccurate are their statements. Thus, in "Memoirs of the 
Empress Josephine/' by John S. Memes, LL. D., I find that the parents 
of the Empress were "both natives of France, though married in St. 
Domingo, about 1761." * * * "Of this parentage, the only child, 
the subject of these Memoirs, was born in St. Pierre, the capital of Mar- 
tinico, on the 23d of June, 1763." 

A French dictionary of biography also repeats that Josephine was 
born in St. Pierre ; but this is refuted by the register of baptism at Trois- 
Ilets, which the author of the "Histoire de lTmperatrice Josephine," M. 
Aubenas (to whose volume I am indebted for the facts relating to> the 
early life of Josephine) quotes entire. 

A deep bay nearly divides the island of Martinique near the south- 
ern end. On the northern side, Fort de France; at its right, La Mon- 
tague and Riviere Salee; and directly south of Fort de France is the 
little town (petit bourg, it is called) of Trois-Ilets — the Three Islets — ■ 
hidden from sight by a high cape. 

Lieutenant La Pagerie resided with his bride, in 1761, on the estate 
of his father-in-law, a portion of which was given him in time of his 
marriage. A few years later he came into possession of it, and it is 
known at the present time as La Pagerie. The estate was a large one, 
employing one hundred and fifty slaves in the cultivation of cane and 
coffee, and yielding annual revenue. 

Here, on the 23d of June, 1763, Josephine was born. She had 
scarcely reached the age of three years when the island was visited by a 
terrible hurricane that destroyed an immense amount of property and 
many lives. The hurricane was accompanied by shocks of earthquake, 
thunder and lightning. None so serious had occurred in the memory of 
man. The mansion of La Pagerie was utterly ruined and the crops 
swept away. The walls of the sugar-house alone were left standing, and 
to this building M. La Pagerie fled for shelter with his wife and two chil- 
dren. Shortly after they had taken up their residence in the sugar-house, 
a third child, a daughter also, was born to Mme. La Pagerie. This child, 



MARTINIQUE IN ITS BEAUTY 225 

with the other sister of Josephine, died young ; and a mistake on the rec- 
ords of the burial of the youngest caused the erroneous statement 
subsequently that Josephine had an elder sister. 

Down the hill, within stone's throw of the dwelling, is the sugar- 
house to which M. La Pagerie removed after the visit of the hurricane. 
It is of stone, the walls are very thick, at least two feet, and it is covered 
with the durable brown tiles so in harmony with the landscape. In the 
eastern half are, or were, two large chambers extending two-thirds the 
length of the building, which is above one hundred feet long and fifty 
wide. The roof is fallen in at one place, and you can look into the interior 
of one of the chambers in which Josephine and her parents lived during 
her youth. 

Of the first years of this illustrious child we know little. She resided 
here with her parents until ten years of age, v/hen she was sent to the 
convent at Fort Royal, where she remained until fifteen. During the 
brief period which elapsed between her return from the convent and her 
marriage to Beauharnais, she dwelt with her family, engaged in domestic 
duties and in the education of her sisters. At the age of sixteen she was 
married to Alexander- de Beauharnais, in France. In 1788, having sepa- 
rated from her husband, she returned to her birthplace, and passed three 
tranquil years. With her little daughter, the charming Hortense, then 
five years old, she rambled over hills and valleys endeared to her by the 
memory of childhood days. 

With a loving mother and father, and in the company of her youngest 
sister, surrounded by sympathetic neighbors, she seems to have passed 
some of the happiest days of her existence. Thus she writes of her 
retreat, during the separation from Beauharnais : 

"Nature, rich and sumptuous, has covered our fields with a carpeting 
which charms as well by variety of its colors as of its objects. She has 
strewn the banks of our rivers with flowers, and planted the freshest for- 
ests around our fertile borders. 

"I cannot resist the temptation to breathe the pure aromatic odors 



226 MARTINIQUE IN ITS BEAUTY 

wafted on the zephyr's wings. I love to hide myself in the green woods 
that skirt our dwelling; there I tread on flowers which exhale a perfume 
as rich as that of the orange grove, and more grateful to the senses. How 
many charms has this retreat for one in my situation ! * * * I find 
myself in the midst of my relations and the old friends who once loved 
and still love me tenderly." 

One hundred years ago ! 

Leaving the river, we climbed the hills to the west and began our 
search for birds. Above a tangled mass of thorny acacia hovered a tiny 
humming-bird, with slender beak and pointed helmet, darting at the spicy 
blossoms of an unknown vine; gold and silver was he in the sunshine. 
The little gem dropped into the thicket with quivering wings that never 
again would bear their owner upward. Quickly my little companion 
darted forward to tear the vines apart to get at the bird which lay upon 
the ground beneath. He had hardly forced his hand through, when he 
uttered a shriek of terror and fell back, then ran quickly to me and clung 
to my legs, trembling and weeping. Pointing to the bushes, he faintly 
murmured, "Fer de Lance." 

Cautiously approaching, I saw a wicked-looking head, belonging to 
a snake as large around as my arm. It was broad, triangular in shape, 
and flat, with gleaming eyes, and thrust itself toward us savagely, murder 
in its every look and motion. A Iy gun was charged for another hum- 
ming-bird, and the load of small shot I fired into the snake did not cause 
its death, and it unwound itself and crawled rapidly toward us, its eyes 
flashing fire, intent upon striking us with its fangs, one blow of which 
would cause certain death. When Ave got within reach of a stout cudgel 
my boy handed me, I mauled hirn so severely that he gave up to ghost 
after a short but severe fight; for the "Fer de Lance" is no coward, and, 
like the rattlesnake, will fight even fire. 

Never was scene more peaceful, nor solitude more sweet. Little won- 
der that Josephine should recur to it in memory again and again, when 



MARTINIQUE IN ITS BEAUTY 227 

surrounded by the pomp and magnificence of courts. An hour passed, I 
lay silently musing, gazing on the waving fields and shimmering sea : 

" 'Tis the fervid tropic noontime; faint and low the sea-waves beat; 
Hazy rise the inland mountains through the glimmer of the heat." 

From this day-dream I was awakened by a tremor of the earth 
beneath me; it seemed to tremble, to vibrate; and then ensued that feel- 
ing of uncertainty that one experiences when, at the crest of a mighty 
wave, he is about to descend into abysmal depths, with his heart in his 
mouth. 

That afternoon, the river came down from the mountains a roaring 
torrent, washing away a bridge and a great deal of cane along its banks; 
and my host lamented the loss of several hundred francs the flood had 
cost him. That night, another earthquake occurred, which awoke me 
all too rudely and caused me to reflect upon the strength of the thin strips 
of bamboo above my head that had supported the heavy ties for a hun- 
dred years. 

My little garcon went with me to the boat at early morn, and wept 
bitterly because I would not take him with me ; and I left him, regardless 
of my doucour of silver, a picture of rags and melancholy. 

St. Pierre lies, like all the ports of the Lesser Antilles, on the western 
or leeward coast fronting the Caribbean. The reason for this is that the 
east coasts are exposed to the storms of the Atlantic, while the west 
coasts afford better protection for shipping. The coast on which St. 
Pierre stood has the advantage of deep water close inshore. Ten miles 
southeast of Cape St. Martin, the northwestern point of the island, the 
coast line curves a little inland like a slightly bent bow. As an indenta- 
tion it would scarcely be observed, but for five miles the waves roll upon 
the shore a mile or so nearer the mountains than elsewhere. Midway 
on this slight recess of the land stood St. Pierre, a town without a harbor, 
fronting merely an open roadstead with deep water inshore; without 
very good anchorage, except at the extreme southern part of the port; 
with mooring buoys in a straight line north and south where shipping 



228 MARTINIQUE IN ITS BEAUTY 

might tie up in 200 to 300 feet of water ; the buoys a quarter of a mile 
from the shore, because when a storm brews the sea captains cast off 
and scuttle out into the open as quickly as possible. There is forty feet 
of water almost anywhere in the roadstead within less than 300 feet of 
the buildings fronting the sea. 

Torrents pouring down the hillsides in the rainy season have for ages 
been pulverizing the volcanic rock and strewing the fine particles along 
the sea edge, making a flat foreshore, on which the city of St. Pierre 
stood. Its shops and sugar houses fronted the sea for more than a mile 
and within 100 feet of it, following the gentle curvings of the shore line. 
All the space between the front street and the hills that wall in the city 
site was filled with buildings and streets along that mile; some eighteen 
or twenty streets extended from the hills down to the water front; the 
width of the city from the shore inland was according to the advance 
or retreat of the hills, here two or three and there six or seven blocks 
wide; with the greatest width in the northern and better part of the 
town where the Mouillage River, flowing swiftly from the hills, crossed 
the city to the sea. From Point St. Marthe in the north to a hill that 
falls abruptly to the shore in the south, the city was about one and an 
eighth miles in length. 

The living things in the underbrush, on the trees and in the grass of 
Martinique are not all agreeable. The low bushes are covered with 
land-snails, and lizards dart out from every crevice, from under every 
rock and dead limb, and run up the trunks of trees by scores — lizards 
of all sorts, sizes and colors; and they are sluggish, too, and it is easy 
to catch them. But in searching for snails, I encountered an insect not 
very agreeable, whose bite is certain fever, sometimes death. Horribly 
gay is this spider, the tarantula, in the long hair that covers body and 
legs, which serves well to conceal it while waiting for its prey in a dark 
crevice or under a drooping leaf. They like to conceal themselves be- 
neath the leaves of such plants as the aloes, where one broad leaf under- 
laps the other, and where they can rest almost unseen. You see it also 



MARTINIQUE IN ITS BEAUTY 229 

on the walks, its hairy legs outstretched, its ugly body flat to the earth, 
resembling a bunch of catkins from the trumpet tree, which everywhere 
lie scattered about. Poke it with a stick, and, instead of trying to escape, 
it will climb up that stick so vigorously toward your hand that, ten to 
one, you will drop it and run. Turn it over, and it discloses a pair of 
sharp, beak-like jaws, red within, which, with its gleaming eyes, have 
a cruel appearance. With its legs spread, this spider will sometimes 
cover the area of a saucer. 

Centipedes, and scorpions also, abound here. Indeed, it seems that 
nature has bestowed upon the isle of Martinique all the pests and scourges 
known to these islands; for only here and in the adjacent island of St. 
Lucia is found that most venomous and vengeful of all serpents, the 
lance-head snake — Craspedocephalus lanceolatus. Contempt is the child 
of familiarity, and the frequency with which such pests are seen divests 
them of the terror they might otherwise inspire. There is one disturber 
of the peace in Martinique which is not only carefully avoided, but feared. 
This is the poisonous serpent called the Fer-de-Lance. It is aggressive 
and venomous, and though its home is in the forest, yet it frequently 
descends to the gardens and even enters the dwellings. Ever since the 
island has been in possession of the white man, this serpent has been a 
terror and scourge. It invades the cane-fields, where it strikes down the 
negro laborer ; suspends itself from limbs of trees that stretch above the 
forest paths; lies in wait for its victims in every conceivable situation, 
except within the cities, where the streets are lighted. 



CHAPTER XIV. 

THE ANCIENT HISTORY OF THE CARIBS AND THEIR 

ISLANDS. 

How the Latter are Associated with the Wars That Lasted 
Two Centuries between the English, French and Span- 
iards — Their Association with Columbus — A Theory That 
in the Pearl Islands the Word "Americapan" Was in Use, 
and that from It Was Evolved the Name of the New 
World, America. 

The contest between the three great Western Nations of Europe for 
the mastery of the West Indies, which had been advertised to the whole 
world in the discovery by Columbus, lasted for centuries. Spain for a 
long time made a strenuous resistance to the English, and the decision 
as to the predominance of England on the sea was finally settled in that 
part of the world by the great victory won by Admiral Rodney over 
D'Estange, which happened while the French, with a fleet and army, 
were on the way to Jamaica to dispossess the English, who regarded 
their victory there as avenging their decisive discomfiture at Yorktown. 
It was the fleet under Grasse which beat back the British fleet sent 
from New York for the relief of Cornwallis, a reverse to the British at 
sea that forced the surrender of Cornwallis. 

Admiral Rodney was famous for his career in the West Indies. In 
1762 he sailed from Barbadoes, for Martinique, in command of eighteen 
ships of a line, and on the fourth of February the island capitulated to 
him. Then followed the surrender of Dominica, Tobago, St. Vincent 
and St. Lucia, which gave the whole of the French Caribbees into posses- 
sion of Great Britain. 

The sulphur pits of the island of Martinique were known to Cortes, 
and their volcanic reputation was established not long after the time of 

230 



CARIBS AND THEIR ISLANDS 231 

Columbus. In the Natural and Moral History of the Indies, by Father 
Joseph De Acosta, he gives in his quaint way the following characteriza- 
tion of the famous mountains : 

"And they holde it for certaine that there is some correspondence 
betwixt this Vulvan and the Sierra of Tlascala, which is neare vnto it, 
that causeth the great thunders and lightinings they doe commonly heare 
and see in those parts. 

"Some Spaniards have mounted vppe to this Volcano, and given 
notice of the mine of sulphre to make powder thereof. Cortes reportes 
the care hee had to discover what was in this Volcano. The Volcana 
of Guatimala are more renowned, as well for their greatnesse and height, 
which those that saile in the South Sea discover a farre off*, as for the 
violence and terrour of the fire it casts. The three and twentieth day 
of December, in the yeere of our Lord God one thousand five hundred 
eighty and sixe, almost all the Cittie of Guatimala fell with an earth- 
quake, and some people slain. This Volcano had then, sixe months 
together, day and night, cast out from the toppe, and vomited as it were 
a floud of fire, the substance falling vpon the sides of the Volcan was 
turned into ashes, like vnto burnt earth — a thing passing man's judge- 
ment to conceive how it would cast so much matter from its centre during 
sixe moneths, being accustomed to caste smoke alone, and that sometimes 
with small flashes." 

The pleasing writer, Frederick A. Ober, had a fancy in his journey- 
ings so pleasantly related in the West Indies, of following in the wake of 
Columbus, and refers to his halt at the "Maroon Tree," in St. Vincent, 
for rest and refreshment, and at noon were aj a cave under the brim of 
the crater, where they partook of lunch. His former visit had been 
to capture a song bird inhabiting the upper slopes of the volcano, called 
the "Invisible" bird because its song was heard, but the singer never 
could be found until Mr. Ober secured specimens by living on the crest 
of the volcano for four days. Returning to the place, he says he heard 
the strains of the "Soufriere" bird all along the trail. It is the crater 



232 CARIBS AND THEIR ISLANDS 

of this mountain in which the frightful agitation of the lake in the 
crater, before the final outburst, has been so graphically described. He 
speaks of the crater in these terms: "Far below it lies a pearly lake, 
slumbering in beauty two thousand feet above the sea. The volcano 
peak is three thousand feet above sea level, and only attained after 
hard climbing." The path to the top was deeply gullied and almost 
impassable, plunging deep into ferns until the heat was well nigh intoler- 
able. The last mile was through thickets of mountain palms, and emerg- 
ing from them the adventurer entered the open pasture lands of Mahoe, 
thickly studded with great bread fruit trees. 

Mr. Ober, at one of the villages on the mountain, had noted at his 
previous visit the prettiest Indian child he had ever seen, and when he 
made his second call he said she was "now changed into a coarse but 
comely woman. She took me to the site of her mother's hut on the hill, 
and described the terrible hurricane that had blowed the hut away, and 
destroyed their garden." Near this place was the central settlement of 
the Yellow Caribs, who had no reservation of their own, but hired land 
of the government, living by the cultivation of arrow root, with occa- 
sional expeditions upon the sea and spells of work on the sugar planta- 
tions. 

Their habits were like those of the Dominica Caribs and there were 
about the same number of full blooded Indians there as in the Northern 
islands. The number of the Indians distinctly descended from the 
Indians discovered by the first Spaniards were variously estimated, some- 
times as low as three hundred. There is a pathetic interest in this story 
of the original Caribs now, because they are all said to have -perished in 
the outburst of the old sulphur pit, and with them is extinguished the 
last trace of the blood of the native islanders found by Columbus. 

The island of St. Vincent is believed to have been discovered by 
Columbus on his third or fourth voyage to America. The Spaniards 
never made a settlement there, which perhaps accounts for the survival 
of some of the natives. It lies three degrees further south than the 



CARIBS AND THEIR ISLANDS 233 

more important island of Trinidad, which was first seen by Columbus in 
his third voyage in 1498. The island of Trinidad was named by Colum- 
bus because he had promised to name his next discovery after the sacred 
Triad, in token of gratitude at the sign of land. He approached the 
island from the southern shore, entering the Bay of Paris through the 
passage which he named the Serpent's Mouth. He had expected to find 
the people in that latitude with African characteristics, but they resembled 
the Caribs in the islands to the north, and were equally comely. Pietero 
Martire, one of the first chroniclers of the discoveries of Columbus, said 
of this : 

"So that, as he (Columbus) saith, it (the earth) is not round after the 
form of a ball or apple, as others think, but rather like a pear as 
it hangeth on the tree ; and that Paria is that region which possesseth the 
super-eminent or highest part thereof, nearest unto heaven. Insomuch 
that he earnestly contendeth the Earthly Paradise to" be .situate in the 
top of those three hills which the watchman saw out of the top-castle 
of the ship ; and that the outrageous streams of the fresh waters which 
did so violently issue out of the said gulf, and strive so with the salt 
water, fall headlong from the tops of the said mountains." 

He coasted the inner shores of the Trinidad, delighted with the scen- 
ery, and discovering troops of monkeys sporting in the forests; then 
he stood across for the peninsula of Paria, where he found the most 
agreeable the Spaniards had ever seen. Here he saw the first pearls, and 
gained information of the Pearl Islands, which he later sailed to, and 
from which he brought away some valuable specimens. He found 
oysters growing on trees, and recalling what the learned Pliny had writ- 
ten regarding the information of pearls from dew, inferred that they 
hung there with their mouths open to receive the dew that was to be 
transmuted into the precious pearls. Oysters may be seen there now, 
growing in the same manner, suspended from the twigs and roots of the 
mangroves ; but no one has yet found pearls in any quantity in the Gulf 
of Paria. It was about mid-August that he sailed through the Serpent's 



234 CARIBS AND THEIR ISLANDS 

Mouth (which he named so because of the terrible currents he encount- 
ered there) and steered northwardly, first visiting the Pearl Islands, 
Cubagua and Margarita, and thence making for Hispaniola. 

Arrived there, he found the island in turmoil, and eventually he was 
made prisoner by Bobadilla, an official sent by the king of Spain, and 
returned home in chains. Columbus would have remained longer among 
the Pearl Islands, which gave such promise of wealth, but a malady 
of the eyes made him nearly blind, and he was obliged to seek the 
island of Hispaniola, where there was promise of relief. 

During the year that followed he sent home to Spain an account of 
his discoveries and specimens of the finest pearls, by which other adven- 
turers became aware of the richness of the newly-discovered land, and 
one of his old companions, Alonzo de Ojeda, a brave soldier, obtained 
the king's permission to fit out an expedition to explore where Columbus 
left off. With Ojeda was another adventurer, then unknown, but who 
subsequently became famous through his narrative of the voyage and 
through having his name given to the country discovered by Columbus. 
This man was Americus Vespucci, and he arrived at the Gulf of Paris 
and the Pearl Islands in the year following the visit of Columbus, 1499. 

It has been denied by some investigators that our country was named 
after the Florentine, but that it derived its name from an aboriginal word 
in use on this very Peninsula of Paris, Americapan, which is applied 
to a settlement there. This may be so ; let the geographers decide it. 
But one thing is certain, Vespucci gave the name to the richest country 
on the north coast of South America — Venezuela. 

Sailing beyond the Pearl Islands, these purloiners from the fame of 
Columbus discovered Curacoa. 

It is curiously interesting that in the studies of the history of the 
Carib Islands we find the last feeble tribe of the once warlike natives of 
the southern islands of the great American archipelago, overwhelmed in 
their habitation on that which was sacred soil to them, because they were 
worshippers of the Fire God that dwelt, according to their ideas of 



CARIBS AND THEIR ISLANDS 237 

supernatural beings they must worship, in the fiery mountain. And if 
they had the facility of expression, and had left a literature, it would 
appear that the destruction of themselves was a sacrifice to which the race 
was foredoomed to the gods whose habitations were the fiery mountains. 

There is a later theory about the Caribs, who were supposed early 
in the eruption of Soufriere to have been annihilated : 

That the last of the Caribs have been exterminated by recent erup- 
tions of volcanoes on the Windward Islands is denied by authorities, 
who say that there was no member of the race on Martinique, and if any 
remnant was destroyed on St. Vincent it was not the fault of the English 
government which deported 6,000, the entire number then inhabiting 
this island, in 1876. They are scattered throughout South and Central 
America, and representatives of the tribes are found occasionally on 
the group of islands in the sea that gets its name from them. 

Students of ethnology have found the Caribs interesting and baffling 
subjects. Their origin is shrouded in mystery, and the black types often 
found in Belize and Honduras are taken by some scientists as proof that 
African blood was mixed with that of the Caribs long before the whites 
brought slaves to America. 

The pure type of Carib differs radically from that of other natives 
of the Americas. It is now difficult to find the red native with the 
characteristics that distinguished him when his country was discovered 
by the Spanish navigators. Negro and Arowak blood is now so mixed 
with the Carib that the casual traveler in the tropics is confused. 

When England deported the 6,000 men, women and children of the 
Caribbean race from St. Vincent they were taken to Granada. A few 
years later they were taken to Belize. Professor Starr of the University 
of Chicago, who has spent some time in Central America, is of the opin- 
ion that no Caribs were destroyed by the recent volcanic disturbances in 
the Caribbean Sea. 

'They once inhabited most of the Lesser Antilles," he said, "but 
to-day they are mostly on the mainland. There were once three kinds, 



238 CARIBS AND THEIR ISLANDS 

classified as island, coast and inland Caribs. When Columbus discovered 
America the island Caribs were a powerful race in the Antilles. Ethnol- 
ogists differ as to their movements previous to that time. Some authori- 
ties maintain that they were of a southern race moving north, but it is 
my opinion that the theory of a northern race going south is the correct 
one. 

"As far back as any authentic history goes we find records of black 
Caribs. There is much evidence to prove that the black Carib existed 
long before the white people brought African slaves to this country. 
This has caused much interesting speculation and no doubt is proof of 
movements of people that we know nothing of. 

"The Carib is of the South American Indian type. He is a very 
sturdy man. It is said they are the handsomest race native to the Amer- 
icas. The Carib proved himself superior to other natives before the 
arrival of the whites arrested the progress of Indian affairs. They were 
good potters and were the only Indians that used sails for their canoes, 
which were the best-made vessels found in America." 

Caribs are often pointed out to travelers in South and Central Amer- 
ica. They are proud of their race. They are industrious. 



CHAPTER XV. 

THE ISLE OF NEVIS. 

One of the String of the Caribbee Pearls — ^Alexander Hamil- 
ton's Birth-Place, and Scene of the Episode of Marriage 
in Lord Nelson's Life — The Story of Nelson's Career as 
a Lover in the West Indies. 

John C. Hamilton, the son of Alexander Hamilton, and his biog- 
rapher, traced the life of his father in his writings and says of his 
birth and blood : 

"Alexander Hamilton was born in the Island of Nevis, on the elev- 
enth of January, seventeen hundred and fifty-seven. On his father's 
side his origin was Scottish, and his lineage may be traced in the 
'Memoirs of the House of Hamilton' through the Cambuskeith branch 
of that house to a remote and renowned ancestry." 

It is evident, however, that the beautiful mother rather than the 
House of Hamilton, was the inspiration of the life of the boy of genius, 
and that his gifts that took the charm of oratory or the glow of hero- 
ism, were hers. Senator Henry Cabot Lodge, in his analytical life of 
Hamilton, gives this summary of his birth and the splendid inheritance 
that was his distinction. 

The Senator says among many things a few lines as follows : 

"On the eleventh day of January in the year 1757, the wife of a 
Scotch merchant in the Island of Nevis gave birth to a son, who re- 
ceived the name of Alexander Hamilton. Many varying elements were 
mingled in this boy. He was a British subject born in the tropics, 
Scotch on his father's side and of French Huguenot descent on his 
mother's, and to this conjunction many of the qualities which Hamil- 
ton exhibited in after life may be traced. But that which strikes us 
most at the outset is his extraordinary precocity; his mind and char- 

239 



240 THE ISLE OF NEVIS 

acter seemed to partake of the nature of those luxuriant tropical plants 
which in a few months attain a growth permitted only after years of 
conflict and care in the harsher climate of the North." 

John T. Morse, Jr., in his "Life of Alexander Hamilton," opens by 
saying he was still very young when he had the misfortune to lose a 
mother "who is represented to have been no ordinary woman. It was 
her rare beauty that attracted the attention of her first husband; but 
the child, Alexander, had a precocious appreciation of her higher charms 
of mind and character. Of her cultivation, her noble and generous spir- 
it, and her refined and elegant manners, he ever retained and was wont 
often to express the most lively and tender memory. 

"It would be an interesting speculation for one fond of such obscure 
studies, to inquire how far the peculiar qualities of the mind and char- 
acter of Hamilton were due to this intermingling of the blood of two 
widely different races, and to the superadded effect of his tropical birth- 
place." 

Mr. Morse says : 

"In 1730, Alexander Hamilton, of Grange, — one of the illustrious 
Scottish family or clan of that name, — was married to Elizabeth, the 
eldest daughter of Sir Robert Pollock. Many children were born of 
this marriage. The fourth son, James," became a merchant in the 
West Indies, and married the daughter of a French Huguenot, and of 
this lady he says: 

"She had previously espoused, in early youth, at the command of her 
mother though against her own inclination, a rich Dane named Lavine. 
But these forced nuptials were followed not long after by a divorce, 
and subsequently by the second and happier marriage with Mr. James 
Hamilton. Several children were born to this couple; but only one, 
the youngest, Alexander Hamilton, lived to mature years." 

Beyond this — and we quote all the authorities — it is as hard to 
trace the descent or ascent of Alexander Hamilton as that of William 
Shakespeare. Between father and mother there is no question Alexander 



THE ISLE OF NEVIS 241 

Hamilton was well born; that is, he had health, strength and brains, 
and became a leader of men, and a man of extraordinary elevation and 
illumination of intellect. 

Alexander Hamilton's father, James Hamilton, was Scotch, and his 
mother French. His mother was married to an elderly man, a Dane 
named Lavine, and was unhappy with him, for the wealth of the Dane 
was urged upon her by her mother as advantageous. She was a beau- 
tiful woman, and the suitor of advanced years greatly admired her, but 
her inclination against the match was hard to overcome. The mar- 
riage turned out so uncongenial that she sought and obtained a divorce. 
Her influential mother had the unfortunate responsibility for the mis- 
fortune of this marriage. Mrs. Lavine removed after her divorce to 
St. Christopher's, and there married James Hamilton. There were 
several Hamilton children, the younger named Alexander, and he only 
survived infancy. The statesman's grandfather, "Alexander Hamilton 
of Grange" (the family seat situate in Ayrshire), about the year seven- 
teen hundred and thirty, married Elizabeth, the eldest daughter of Sir 
Robert Pollock, and had numerous issue, of whom James, the fourth 
son, was the father of the Alexander the great. 

Bred a merchant, and the West Indies opening an extensive field to 
commercial enterprise, James left Scotland for St. Christopher's, where, 
though at first successful, through a too generous and easy temper, he 
failed in business and was, during the greater part of his life, in re- 
duced circumstances. 

In the early period of his reverses he was supported by his friends 
in Scotland, and in advanced age, by his son Alexander. He died in 
St. Vincent in the year seventeen hundred and ninety-nine, having de- 
clined, by the advice of his physician, the earnest solicitations of his 
son to join him in the United States. 

The distinguished Alexander Hamilton's maternal grandfather was 
a French Huguenot. His name was Fancette. In the general expatria- 
tion of his protestant countrymen, which followed the revocation of the 



242 THE ISLE OF NEVIS 

edict of Nantes, he emigrated to the West Indies, and settled in Nevis, 
where he successfully pursued the practice of medicine. 

He was a man of letters and of polished manners, whether his orig- 
inal profession was that of a physician, but the particulars of his educa- 
tional advantages are not ascertained. Alexander Hamilton's rare and 
lofty qualities seem in greater part to have been inherited from his 
mother. She died when he was a child and her character remained viv- 
idly impressed upon his memory. He recollected her with inexpressi- 
ble fondness, and often spoke of her as a woman of superior intellect, 
highly cultivated, of elevated and generous sentiments, and of unusual 
elegance of person and manner. On her decease, the indigence of her 
husband threw their only surviving child upon the bounty of his moth- 
er's relatives, Mr. Peter Lytton, and his sister (afterward Mrs. Mitch- 
ell), who resided at Santa Cruz, where he received the rudiments of his 
education. As an instance of which, rarely as he dwelt upon his per- 
sonal history, he mentioned his having been taught to repeat the Deca- 
logue in Hebrew, at the school of a Jewess, when so small that he was 
placed standing by her side on a table. 

Many endearing traits of that generous and independent temper 
which were so conspicuous in his after life, appeared during his child- 
hood. Hence, though his superiority occasionally awakened the envy 
of his comrades, it was soon disarmed by the amenity of his manners. 

There is reason to believe, from the low standard of education in the 
West Indies, that the circle of his early studies was very limited, 
probably embracing little more than the rudiments of the English and 
French languages, the latter of which he subsequently wrote and spoke 
with the ease of a native. 

A letter from Alexander Hamilton, written to a school-fellow, Ed- 
ward Stevens, reads thus: 

"St. Croix, Nov. n, 1769. 

"Dear Edward — This serves to acknowledge the receipt of yours per 
Capt. Lowndes, which was delivered me yesterday. The truth of Capt. 



THE ISLE OF NEVIS 243 

Lightbowen and Lowndes' information is now verified by the presence 
of your father and sister, for whose safe arrival I pray, and that they 
may convey that satisfaction to your soul that most naturally flows from 
the sight of absent friends in health ; and shall for news this way, refer 
you to them. 

"As to what you say, respecting your soon having the happiness of 
seeing us all, I wish for an accomplishment of your hopes, provided 
they are concomitant with your welfare, otherwise not; though doubt 
whether I shall be present or not, for, to confess my weakness, Ned, 
my ambition is prevalent, so that I condemn the groveling condition of 
a clerk, or the like, to which my fortune condemns me, and would will- 
ingly risk my life, though not my character, to exalt my station. I am 
confident, Ned, that my youth excludes me from any hopes of imme- 
diate preferment, nor do I desire it; but I mean to prepare the way for 
futurity. I'm no philosopher, you see, and may be justly said to build 
castles in the air ; my folly makes me ashamed, and beg you'll conceal it ; 
yet, Neddy, we have seen such schemes successful, when the projector 
is constant. I shall conclude by saying, I wish there was a war. 

"I am, Dear Edward, 

"Yours, 

"Alex. Hamilton. 

"P. S. — I this moment received yours by William Smith, and pleased 
to see you give such application to study. 

"Addressed to 'Edward Stevens, in New York.' " 

Dr. Knox, a Presbyterian divine, was deeply interested in Hamil- 
ton, and gladly helped to guide his early studies, and had a great and 
salutary influence upon the brilliant boy. In the autumn of 1769, 
young Hamilton was placed in the counting house of Mr. Nicholas Cru- 
ger, a merchant, and most worthy man, then residing in Santa Cruz. 

We are concerned only with that part of the life of Lord Nelson 
passed in the West Indies. His great victories won at Copenhagen, 
Abouker and Trafalgar, were, from the American point of view, "be- 



244 THE ISLE OF NEVIS 

yond seas.'' It was a long cry to the Baltic and to the shores of Egypt 
and Spain. Nelson's visits to the tropical islands of the American hemi- 
sphere were educational and he had no chances for the brilliant maneu- 
vers by which he broke the lines of his enemies' fleets; but he was in 
difficulty with the hereditary incompetents of England, and popular 
with the men in whom England confided the doing of duty. The mes- 
sage attempted at Trafalgar to signal to the fleet was "England confides 
in every man to do his duty," but the code did not contain the word 
"confides," and "expects" was substituted. 

Nelson would do his duty in the Indies, but no great opportunity 
came to him there, and the most distinguished act of his career in the 
American tropics was going to the Island of Nevis to get married, and 
he did not marry his first love in the tropics, either. When he had 
been on a long cruise, he wrote: 

"The whole ship's company offered, if I could get a ship, to enter 
for her immediately ; but I have no thought of going to sea, for I cannot 
afford to live on board ship in such a manner as is going on at present." 

There was an intermission in war between France and England, and 
he proceeded to fall in love in France. 

He took up his residence at St. Omer, and while studying French, 
fell in love with a Miss Andrews, a daughter of an English clergyman 
there. In January, 1784, he consulted his uncle, William Suckling, 
who consented to allow him £100 a year so as to enable him to marry; 
and on the strength of that increase to his income, he seems to have 
proposed to Miss Andrews and to have been refused. 

January 19, 1784, he was in London, and appointed to command the 
Boreas, a 28-gun frigate, superseding Captain Thomas Wells, who had 
commissioned her five or six months before. She was under orders 
for the Leeward Islands ; but it was the middle of May before she sailed 
from Spithead, Lady Hughes, the wife of the commander-in-chief, and 
her daughter, taking passage in her, and Nelson's brother Wilson going 
as her chaplain. 



THE ISLE OF NEVIS 245 

Nelson did not like Lady Hughes, the wife of the Admiral, and 
soon grew weary of him, saying he was a "fiddler." Laughton, the 
historian, says Nelson was in difficulty with his superior officer and 
while refusing to accept Moutray's authority, and sternly and resolutely 
ordering Moutray's broad pennant to be struck, he was really on very 
friendly terms with Moutray himself, and was devotedly attached to 
Moutray's wife, who would seem, though we have no exact informa- 
tion, to have been many years younger than her husband. "Were it not 
for Mrs. Moutray, who is very, very good to me," Nelson wrote from 
Antigua, shortly after his arrival on the station, "I should almost hang 
myself at this infernal hole;" and again, in the middle of the dispute 
about Moutray's distinguishing pennant, he wrote to his brother : "My 
dear, sweet friend is going home. I am really an April day; happy on 
her account, but truly grieved w^re I only to consider myself. Her 
equal I never -saw in any country, or in any situation." It is in the 
same letter that, after giving an account of the young ladies on the 
station and their various little projects, he adds : "A niece of Governor 
Parry's has come out. She goes to Nevis in the Boreas; they trust 
any young lady with me, being an old-fashioned fellow." 

• A few weeks later, toward the middle of March, 1783, he sailed for 
St. Kitts, in the immediate neighborhood of which he remained several 
months, and, as a relief from the troubles of the lawsuits with which 
he was pestered, fell in love with the niece of Mr. Herbert, the Presi- 
dent of Nevis. Herbert's niece, Frances, the daughter of his sister and 
of William Woodward, a judge of the island, who had died in February, 
1779, was at this time just twenty-four, having been born in the early 
part of 1 76 1. In June, 1779, she had married Dr. Josiah Nisbet, who 
shortly afterward became deranged, and died within eighteen months, 
leaving her with an infant son dependent on her uncle. During Nel- 
son's former visit to St. Kitts he had not had an opportunity of making 
her acquaintance; but now, very shortly after his return, he was 
brought to her notice by a letter from a young friend who wrote to her, 



246 THE ISLE OF NEVIS 

probably from St. Kitts, in the middle or latter end 'of March: "We 
have at last seen the captain of the Boreas., of whom so much has been 
said. He came up just before dinner, much heated, and was very silent, 
yet seemed, according to the old adage., to think the more. He declined 
drinking any wine: but after dinner., when the President., as usual, gave 
the following toasts, 'The Kinsf,' 'The Oueen and Roval Family,' and 
'Lord Hood," this strange man regularly filled his °;lass, and observed 
that those were always bumper toasts with him; which having drank. 
he uniformly passed the bottle and relapsed into his former taciturnity. 
It was impossible for any of us to make out his real character; there 
was such a reserve and sternness in his behavior, with occasional sallies. 
though very transient, of a superior mind. Being placed by him, I en- 
deavored to rouse his attention by showing him all the civilities in my 
power; but I drew out little more than 'Yes.' and 'No.' If you, Fanny. 
had been there, we think you would have made something of him; for 
you have been in the habit of attending to these odd sort of people." 
On May 12th. Nelson, writing to his brother, says incidentally that 
he had been visiting a young widow at Nevis ; and on June 29th. after 
writing., "The Admiral, Lady, and Miss sailed from here yesterday. 
Joy go with them; I had rather have their room than their company" — 
adds a postscript: "Entre nous. Do not be surprised to hear I am a 
Benedict, for, if at all, it will be before a month. Do nor tell." Whether 
he was already an accepted lover it is impossible to say, probably not, 
but at any rate he was so within a few weeks ; and a letter, written from 
Antigua on September nth, begins, "My dear Fanny," ends "Your 
affectionate," and discusses the prospect of their marriage in a calm. 
businesslike manner. The whole tone of the letter, the first, apparently. 
he wrote to her, is rather esteem than passion; it appears to be written 
by an affectionate friend rather than by an ardent lover. So much in- 
terest attached to this point, the marriage has been so often described as 
a genuine love-match, that it may be well to reproduce this part of it. 
"I have received a letter from Mr. Herbert, in answer to that which I 



THE ISLE OF NEVIS 247 

left at Nevis for him. My greatest wish is to be united to you ; and the 
foundation of all conjugal happiness, real love, and esteem is, I trust, 
what you believe I possess in the strongest degree toward you. I think 
Mr. Herbert loves you too well not to let you marry the man of your 
choice, although he may not be so rich as many others, provided his 
character and situation in life render such a union eligible. I declare 
solemnly that, did I not conceive I had the full possession of your heart, 
no consideration should make me accept your hand. We know that 
riches do not always ensure happiness; and the world is convinced that 
I am superior to pecuniary considerations in my public and private life ; 
as in both instances I might have been rich. But I will have done, leav- 
ing my present feelings to operate in your breast; only of this truth be 
convinced, that I am your affectionate Horatio Nelson. P. S. — Do 
I ask too much when I venture to hope for a line? or otherwise I may 
suppose my letters may be looked on as troublesome." 

It was the natural sequel to this letter that he should presently 
write one to his uncle, whose promised assistance nearly two years 
before had enabled him to propose to Miss Andrews. Mr. Suckling was 
equally liberal on the present occasion, and agreed to make him a suffi- 
cient allowance. What Nelson asked for was £100 a year for a few 
years, and this was probably what was given. Nelson thought that 
Herbert would give his niece two or three hundred a year during his 
life, and he promised to leave her £20,000 at his death, or the bulk of his 
property, which was very great, if his own daughter should die before 
him. 

In August Sir Richard Hughes went home, and Nelson was left sen- 
ior officer on the station, so that when Prince William came out in 
November as captain of the frigate Pegasus, he was under Nelson's 
orders and resumed his former friendship with him; and learning that 
his chief was going to be married, he insisted that he must be present 
at the ceremony and give the bride away. Of the Prince Nelson 
formed a most favorable opinion, and most of his letters about this time, 



248 THE ISLE OF NEVIS 

tp Mrs. Nisbet, to his brother, or to Locker, are full of his praises. 
"In his profession he is superior to near two-thirds on the list ; in atten- 
tion to orders and respect to his superior officers I hardly know his 
equal; I wish that all the navy captains were as attentive to orders as 
he is." Such are some of the expressions regarding the future king; 
and though much allowance must be made for Nelson's devoted loyalty 
and enthusiastic attachment to the Crown, his whole correspondence 
speaks to his high estimate of the Prince as an officer and a seaman. 

On March 12th, 1787, Nelson was married, the Prince, as had been 
settled, giving the bride away. A month later Nelson wrote to the 
Admiralty that the Boreas was rotten, and would be too bad for the 
voyage if she did not sail before the hurricane season. The Boreas was 
not an old ship; she had been launched only thirteen years; but the 
duration of wooden ships, more especially of those built during the min- 
istry of Lord Sandwich, was very capricious. The state of the ship, 
however, made it necessary to recall her, and she arrived «at Spithead 
on July 4, 1787, Mrs. Nelson coming to England a passenger in a mer- 
chant ship. 

The way Lord Nelson got acquainted with the lady he married on 
the Island of Nevis is thus related by Mahan, the historian and biog- 
rapher : 

"It was in the midst of legal warfare with West Indies and of the pre- 
occupations arising from it, that Nelson first met the lady who became 
his wife. She was by birth a Miss Frances Woolward, her mother be- 
ing a sister of the Mr. Herbert already mentioned as President of the 
Council in Nevis. She was born in the first half of 1758 and was there- 
fore a few months older than Nelson. In 1779 she had married Dr. 
Josiah Nisbet, of Nevis, and the next year was left a widow with one 
son, who bore his father's full name. After her husband's death, being 
apparently portionless, she came to live with Herbert, who looked upon 
and treated her as his own child, although he also had an only daughter. 

"Note. — (Lady Nelson's tombstone in Littleham Churchyard, Ex- 



THE ISLE OF NEVIS 249 

mouth, reads that she died May 6, 1831, 'aged 73.' She would then 
have been born May 6, 1758. Nicolas says that she died May 4, 183 1, 
aged 68, but does not mention his authority.) 

"When Nelson first arrived at Nevis, in January, 1785, she was 
absent, visiting friends in a neighboring island, so that they did not 
then meet — a circumstance somewhat fortunate for us, because it led 
to a description of him being sent to her in a letter from a lady of Her- 
bert's family, not improbably her cousin, Miss Herbert. Note — (Prior 
to May, 1785, the only stops of the 'Boreas' at Nevis were January 6-8, 
February 1-4, and March 11- 15.) Nelson had then become a some- 
what conspicuous factor in the contracted interests of the island society,^ 
owing to the stand he had already publicly assumed with reference to 
the contraband trade. People were talking about him, although he had 
not as yet enforced the extreme measures which made him so unpopular. 

"Mrs. Nisbet very quickly made something of him. Little direct 
description has been transmitted to us concerning the looks or charac- 
teristics of the woman who now, at the time when marriage was pos- 
sible to him, had the misfortune to appear in the line of succession of 
Nelson's early fancies, and to attract the too easily aroused admiration 
and affection of a man whose attachment she had not the inborn power 
to bind. That Nelson was naturally inconstant, beyond the volatility in- 
herent in youth, is sufficiently disproved by the strength and endurance 
of his devotion to the one woman, in whom he either found or imagined 
the qualities that appealed to the heroic side of his character." 

Mahan adds the following: 

"Note. — The author is satisfied, from casual expressions in Nelson's 
letters to Lady Hamilton, that his famous two years' confinement to the 
ship, 1 803- 1 805, and, to a less extent, the similar seclusion practiced in 
the Baltic and the Downs, proceeded, in large part at least, from a 
romantic and chivalrous resolve to leave no room for doubt, in the mind 
of Lady Hamilton or of the world, that he was entirely faithful to her. 

"What is noteworthy in Nelson's letters at this time is the utter 



250 THE ISLE OF NEVIS 

absence of any illusions, of any tendency to exaggerate and glorify the 
qualities of the woman who for the nonce possessed his heart. There 
is not a sign of the perturbation of feeling, of the stirring of the soul, 
that was afterward so painfully elicited by another influence. The dear 
object,' he writes to his brother, 'you must like. Her sense, polite man- 
ners, and, to you I may say, beauty, you will much admire. She pos- 
sesses sense far superior to half the people of our acquaintance, and her 
manners are Mrs. Moutray's.' The same calm, measured tone pervades 
all his mention of her to others. His letters to herself, on the other 
hand, are often pleasing in the quiet, simple, and generally unaffected 
tenderness which inspires them. ,, 



CHAPTER XVI. 

DESTINY DECIDED OFF THE CARIBBEES. 

The English Revenge for Yorktown — Admiral Grasse Left 
Fort de France as the Hurricane Season Was Coming On, 
and Effectively Co-operated with Washington and 

rochambeau to capture cornwallis tlie fleets of the 

English and French Were in Full Force in Carib Waters 
the Next Spring, and in the Great Battle Grasse Was 
Beaten and Captured for the Luck of Fortune Was 
Against Him. 

The exchange of courtesies by the Republic of France and the United 
States, reviving and celebrating the alliance between the English col- 
onies in North America, and the Bourbon Dynasty and flag of the 
lilies of France, brought a very distinguished mission from the French 
to our shores at the time the volcanoes of the Lesser Antilles were 
making themselves memorable by the most destructive display of 
energies known in the West Indies; and there were with us at this 
very time the descendants of Rochambeau and Grasse, the commanders 
of the French fleet and army which came to the aid of our fathers, and 
gave the allied colonies and kingdom the decisive success at Yorktown. 
It was Benjamin Franklin's strategy at Paris that caused the French 
fleet under Grasse to sail from the waters around the isles of the Caribs, 
to the capes of Virginia, just in time to beat off the Canadian fleet the 
English sent from New York for the relief of Cornwallis. It was 
fortunate that we should in this year of marvelous development of the 
resources and fame of our country have with us in the deputation of 
eminent French friends, visitors of the blood of La Fayette, Rochambeau 
and Grasse, all of whom bore distinguished parts in the course of events 
that led up to the surrender of Cornwallis at Yorktown, inflicting on 

251 



252 DESTINY DECIDED 

the British immense chagrin as well as great loss, and insuring the 
independence of the Colonies. It will be well remembered in this con- 
nection that the part of Alexander Hamilton, born in the Caribbees, in 
the siege of Yorktown, was a brilliant one, as he was the leader of the 
storming party of Americans who carried the outer fort, guarding the 
lines of Cornwallis against conquering approaches. 

It is another coincidence that it was in the midst of the Indies, and 
near Martinique, after the English and French fleets had sailed for 
months in and out of the passages of the coveted and hotly contested 
Caribbees, that the English Admiral Rodney crushingly defeated the 
French, when they were engaged in an expedition designed to take pos- 
session of Jamaica. 

It was this splendid British victory, in which a French fleet and 
army were just out of the combat with such destruction, that the destiny 
of England to win in the conflict with the French for supremacy in the 
West Indies, and primacy on the oceans. This French defeat, following 
swiftly for the days of sailing ships, was by the British boastfully de- 
scribed as their "Revenge for Yorktown." 

The ancestor of the Grasse who was of the Rochambeau mission 
during the unparalleled disasters befalling Martinique in 1902 was made 
prisoner when beaten by Rodney. The surrender of the British army 
was October 17th, 1781. The defeat of the French armada in the West 
Indies under Grasse was April 12th, 1782. The winning English Ad- 
miral was Rodney, who bitterly criticised the shrinking from close quar- 
ters of the British fleet when they encountered Grasse off the Virginian 
capes and turned back baffled to New York. It was Grasse who sur- 
rendered his sword and his splendid flagship, the Ville de Paris, then 
the finest line-of-battle ship in the world; but he did not give up the 
ship until a most heroic defense had been made. 

The situations developed then and distinguished now are among the 
most dramatic of the decisive engagements that have marked the destined 
drift of the powers on the seas, so influential in the evolution of nations. 




FAMOUS WALK BETWEEN THE ROYAL PALMS IN HONOLULU 





\ 


L— — — ■ l . l tf>«^«Mi flSSSf W^ 





NUUANU VALLEY PASS AND PALI PEAK, 1,207 FEET HIGH. NEAB HONoLULD. 



DESTINY DECIDED 255 

The historian, David Hannay, in his life of Rodney, gives the ex- 
planation of the important naval operations in the West Indies during 
the closing months of our revolutionary war in these words : 

"What the hill, the river and the wood were to Napoleon or Wel- 
lington, the wind, the current and the lie of the land were to Rodney 
or Nelson. They were obstacles to be avoided or advantages to be used. 
Rodney's field of battle lay in the Lesser Antilles, the long string of small 
islands stretching over six degrees of latitude from south to north 
which form the eastern division of the West Indies. The Antilles, great 
and less, are a vast broken reef which shuts in the gigantic lagoon called 
the Caribbean Sea. The eastern division, which reaches north to the 
Virgin Islands, has been broken small by the pressure of the ocean. 
From the Virgin Islands the reef turns sharp west, and its fragments 
become few and large — first Porto Rico is big, then San Domingo is 
bigger, then Cuba is the biggest. South of Cuba and in the Caribbean 
Sea is Jamaica. In 1780 Cuba and Porto Rico belonged to Spain, as 
they still do. She shared San Domingo with France, and longed to 
recover Jamaica from the hands of England. The Lesser Antilles were 
divided among England, France and Holland. To them considerations, 
physical and political, limited the area of the war. 

"The French held Guadaloupe and Martinique, which had been 
restored to them at the close of the former war. They had lately cap- 
tured Dominica, which lies between the two. They had also snapped up 
Grenada far away to the south, under the very nose of Admiral Byron. 
On the other hand Barrington had seized Santa Lucia and had held it 
in defiance of D'Estaing. This was a satisfactory offset to the loss of 
Dominica and Grenada. Santa Lucia lies to the south of Martinique, 
and a little to windward of it. At the northwest end it possesses the 
admirable harbor of Gros Islet Bay. From this place the French naval 
headquarters at Fort Royal in Martinique could be easily watched.'' 

In the preliminary movements of the French and British fleets there 
was a beautiful game of seamanship. Rodney was bothered by the 



256 DESTINY DECIDED 

obstinacy of his captains, and more than once they threw away advan- 
tages by stupidly misunderstanding or disobeying his orders. The French 
ships were extremely well handed, but they were caught with an array 
of transport ships, carrying an army, and among the burdens was a train 
of siege artillery and this was a heavy handicap. Admiral Grasse did 
not mean to fight Rodney when he had an army on his hands, but the 
accident of a collision between the French flagship and one of her con- 
sorts defeated the wise purpose of caution. The fateful incident that 
forced him to unfortunate battle was this: 

An event followed which made the battle on the following day 
inevitable. The Zele with the others was tacking at the mouth of the 
passage, endeavoring not to lose if she could not gain ground in the 
trade wind. In the dark she met the Ville de Paris, Grasse's own splen- 
did flagship. The Zele was on the port, the Ville de Paris on the star- 
board tack. According to the express orders of the admiral, and accord- 
ing to what is now the universal rule of the road of sea, it was the 
duty of the Zele to put her helm up and go under the stern of the flag- 
ship. But the great gods were weary of Grasse's peddling. They 
blinded the officer of the watch on the Zele. He luffed, endeavored to 
cross the bow of the flagship, and ran smash into her. The Zele had 
her bowsprit snapped short, and her foremast carried away just above 
the deck. The two vessels were entangled, wind and current swept them 
to leeward before they could be got clear. Then Grasse ordered the 
Astree frigate, commanded by the famous and unlucky La Perouse, to 
take the Zele in tow. 

It was two hours before the cable was made fast, and they were on 
their way to Guadaloupe. By daylight, about five o'clock, Grasse and 
the ships closest to him had fallen to leeward. When the first rays 
of the sun showed them to the English fleet, now heading towards them, 
they were stretching over from nine to fifteen miles of water to westward 
of the Saints. Sir Charles Douglas, who was already up on board the 
Formidable, saw that the course of the English would cut right through 



DESTINY DECIDED 257 

them. He hurried down to the Admiral's cabin to report that "God 
had given him his enemy on the lee bow." From Rodney to the youngest 
middy in the fleet, all men saw that the battle was coming now. 

There was almost as tedious and angry a controversy, as to the part 
Sir Charles Douglas played in advising Rodney, as the Santiago affair 
of Sampson and Schley. Sir Charles is supposed to have been pointing 
out to Admiral Rodney just what to do, until the despotic Admiral grew 
weary and irritated, but he certainly took the part of the advice that was 
good. The British story of the critical turn is this : 

"France had to undergo her fate. Grasse bore on to the south, and 
at about nine the English van had passed the last ships of his rear. On 
emerging from the rolling masses of smoke the captains looked eagerly 
back for the signals at the towering mast-head of the Formidable. As 
they looked they saw a great three-decker heading north out of the cloud 
and the flames. For a moment they thought the French Admiral had 
doubled back on them, but as the three-decker cleared the smoke they 
saw the cross of St. George, and knew the Formidable had burst through 
the French line to windward." 

It must have been at a little before half-past nine that Rodney and 
Grasse, whose ship was the fifteenth in the French line, saluted each 
other with the cannon of their three-deckers. Up to now there has been 
nothing to distinguish this from the ordinary sea-fights of the eight- 
eenth century save the number of the ships engaged and the closeness 
of the engagement. 

A chair had been placed on the quarter-deck of the Formidable for 
the Admiral, and he rested on it except when he was walking through the 
cabins under the poop, to the gallery astern, from which he could watch 
the ships of his line behind him. 

It was thirsty work fighting in the thick pall of sulphurous smoke 
in which the gunpowder soon wrapped the ship. Rodney, in one of his 
turns through the cabins, called one of the middies and told him to mix 
a tumbler of lemonade. The middy went to work, and, having nothing 



258 DESTINY DECIDED 

more handy for the purpose, stirred the brew up with the hilt of his 
dirk. "Child, child," said the Admiral, "that may do for the midship- 
men's mess. Drink that lemonade yourself, and send my steward 
here" — which order the middy obeyed with alacrity. 

The already existing confusion in the French line was immensely 
increased and a great gap appeared just astern of the Glorieux, which 
was now right on the starboard bow of the Formidable, caused proba- 
bly by the fact that the Diademe, the next succeeding Frenchman, was 
forced across the bows of the English flag-ship. 

Sir Charles Douglas was at this moment leaning on the hammocks 
in the front of the quarter-deck, and he saw the evidence of the existing 
confusion in the French line. That he realized the whole extent of it 
we need not believe, but he saw the gap and he saw that by passing 
through it we might cut the French rear off from the center and put it 
between two fires. He jumped down from the hammocks and (so Dash- 
wood told the story in later years) asked his little aide, "Dash, where is 
Sir George?" — "I think he is in the cabin, sir," was the answer. Both 
turned aft and came face to face with the Admiral, who was just step- 
ping out of the gangway. Sir Charles went up to him, and, taking off 
his hat, pointed out the gap in the French line to Rodney, urging him 
to steer through it. For a moment the Admiral hesitated. He did not 
like to "have things sprung on him" at any time, and now it behooved 
him to think. It was very well for the captain of the fleet to recom- 
mend the manoeuver; he would be covered by the authority of his Ad- 
miral. For Rodney, who would have to bear the responsibility for the 
consequences, it was a very serious step, indeed. He had served under 
Mathews, and had not forgotten the fate which overtook that officer for 
departing from the consecrated rules of battle. His first impulse was 
to say no, and he did. "I will not break my line, Sir Charles," was his 
answer. In his eager conviction that he was right Douglas pressed the 
Admiral again, and even so far forgot himself as to actually give the 
order to port to the quartermasters. A fierce reminder of their respec- 



DESTINY DECIDED 259 

tive positions from Rodney stopped him before the wheel had moved. 
Then, as we may well suppose, instinctively feeling the indecency of a 
wrangle, the two men turned from one another for a moment. The 
break in the dispute calmed both; Rodney consented to the suggestion. 

There were more than thirty men of war on each side in the big 
fight. When, according to Sir Charles Douglas, Admiral Rodney gave 
in to his advice, "Dashwood was sent flying down with the needful 
directions to the lieutenants in the batteries. The Formidable swung 
round to starboard and cut through the French line, pouring her broad- 
side into the Glorieux to right and the Diademe to left as she went. 

"The last of the French prizes to be taken was the Ville de Paris. 
The light winds made our movements slow, and our ships only came 
up with her when the afternoon was wearing on. They tackled her to 
port and to starboard, but the Admiral fought as a man fights who 
wishes to atone by heroism for all faults. His cartridges were used up, 
and it was necessary to hoist powder-barrels out of the hold, and serve 
out the powder with the ladle. The solid fog of smoke between the 
decks choked the lanterns by which the men worked below. Still, until 
nearly six he had not surrendered. Then, with the feeling which caused 
Francis I at Pavia to refuse to give up his sword till he could hand it 
to the Viceroy of Naples, the alter ego of a sovereign and in some sort 
his equal, he looked about for a flag-officer to whom to surrender. At 
that moment Samuel Hood bore down on him in the Barfleur. She had 
been long becalmed, and it had been necessary to get the boats out to 
tow her into the breeze. Now she was pressing on to lay alongside the 
Ville de Paris. Grasse turned towards her, firing a gun of salute. Hood 
concluded that his old friend of the fights off Martinique and St. Kitts 
wished to surrender to him. He returned the salute, ranged up along- 
side, and the two admirals fought a space for honor's sake. There was 
no want of cartridges on board the Barfleur. Her guns were cold. Her 
men were fresh. Her terrible fire speedily overpowered the languid 
answer of the Ville de Paris, whose crew, diminished by a half, were 



260 DESTINY DECIDED 

fighting hopelessly in the dark of the smoke with guns which they could 
only slowly feed with powder. After a few minutes Grasse concluded 
that enough had been done. There were but three unwounded men on 
his upper deck, of whom he w T as one. More men had been slain in his 
ship than in the whole British fleet. There were not two square feet of 
his upper works unshattered by shot. His rigging was a wreck. At 
six o'clock he hauled down the Fleur-de-Lis with his own hands. A 
few minutes later he stepped into the cutter which shot alongside him 
from the Barfleur, and was taken a prisoner to Hood. By Hood he 
was taken to Rodney." 

Just before the battle the two fleets were equal in the number of 
fighting ships. They were at anchor until April 8th, the French getting 
ready at Fort Royal (now so conspicuously before the world in the 
volcanic eruption history), ''the English waiting to start in pursuit 
from Santa Lucia, some forty miles to the south. All leave was stopped 
on our ships. Neither officer or man landed except in duty. A line of 
frigate patrolled the space between the two ports within signaling dis- 
tance of one another. 

"At last, on the 8th, the Andromache frigate, commanded by Captain 
Byron — 'an active, brisk, and intelligent officer,' according to Rodney — 
was seen standing in for Santa Lucia with the signal flying which told 
that the French were getting to sea. Within two hours the English 
were out, and in pursuit. 

"Rodney acted upon the supposition that Grasse would go north- 
ward, and through the night of April 8th he steered in that direction 
past Martinique. On the morning of the 9th the English fleet was off 
Dominica, and it was seen that Rodney had judged rightly. There to 
north and east of our ships were the French fleet and convoy. 

"Rodney and Grasse were now face to face on their decisive field 
of battle. This field is the stretch of water which extends along the 
west side of Dominica to the southern point of Guadaloupe." 



DESTINY DECIDED 261 

The English historian sketched the situation of the war before the 
"Revenge for Yorktown" in these words : 

"Our military forces were ridiculously inadequate to the work they 
had to do, and were moreover divided as if to make the utmost of their 
weakness. Clinton was holding on to New York with one-half of the 
army. Cornwallis and the other half were fighting in the Southern 
States with a valor, skill, and success which, ungrateful people that we 
are, we have too much forgotten. United under Cornwallis our army 
might have done something. Divided it could only stand at bay." 

Rodney arrived in the West Indies after a stormy voyage, in the 
December after the Yorktown surrender. There was a most violent 
hurricane in the West Indies a week before the Yorktown surrender. 
This Grasse had avoided by his Northern trip. It was not by greatly 
superior skill the English won the decisive event. The luck of fortune 
was against the French. 



CHAPTER XVII. 

JOSEPHINE IN HER YOUTH. 

Child of the Sun of the Tropics in the Indies of America — 
Born Beautiful Under Western Palms, Transplanted to 
Grace Paris, and Lead Napoleon Captive. 

The romance of the tragic Isle of Martinique is the life of Josephine, 
Empress of the French. Her life began in the island when it was beau- 
tiful and prosperous, and her grandson, Napoleon III, erected a monu- 
ment to her in the ancient capital that was once Port Royal. Hearne, 
who visited the statue, calls it "a white dream," a "creation of master 
sculptors," something "absolutely lovely," and the effect touching, for 
the face wears a smile that has a sweetness all its own. It was from 
the harbor of this spot that Grasse sailed with his fleet and army to 
meet discomfiture at the hand of Rodney and to become a captive, suf- 
fering with his armament one of the defeats of France that gave Eng- 
land her magical sea power that has carried her so far around the 
world. 

Josephine, in spite of her follies, had a dainty grace in her frivoli- 
ties that has given her sympathy, and her sorrows have won a far 
warmer place in the heart of the world that knows her well than all the 
splendors in which she was radiant ever gave her. 

Frederick Ober, the poet, historian and pen painter of the West In- 
dies, writes of the Island of Martinique: A tropical morning of the 
year 1762, as the sun rose from the Atlantic, he found a green and 
rugged island interposed between himself and the Caribbean Sea; a 
chain of wrinkled hills, with summits wreathed in vapory clouds. This 
verdant mountain-mass was Martinique, one of the fairest of those 
many isles that lie, crescent-like, between the ocean of storms and the 
sea of calms. 

262 



JOSEPHINE IN HER YOUTH 263 

One day far distant, in the age of fire, it had been upheaved from 
the slimy ocean-depths; its primal rocks for centuries had been beaten 
upon by tropic sun and washed in torrential rains; slowly, during 
eons of time it had gathered the garment of verdure now enwrapping 
it. Heat and moisture, the great alchemists, had combined to prepare 
its soil for the reception and retention of the seeds and germs of plant- 
life, brought hither by birds and by the winds that swept its surface. 
Thus the deep and gloomy valleys, the sloping hillsides, even the moun- 
tain summits, were covered with carpets of emerald embossed with 
flowers and trees. 

The tropical sun on this tropical day of 1762 was looking upon the 
conquest of Martinique by the English, and, upon the summit of a hill, 
overlooking the deep bay of Fort Royal, stood a fair and delicate 
woman about twenty-five years of age. She was the center of a group 
of female slaves, who were regarding, as anxiously as she, the scene 
spread out before them. The deep valley at their feet was filled with 
shadows; a peaked niorne cast its black counterpart across the interven- 
ing vale, and aslant the hill on which they stood. The morning air was 
cool and sweet; it breathed of naught but peace; yet, across the bay, 
less than four miles away, arose the smoke of conflict. The English 
fleet had approached the shore; the grim walls of Fort Saint Louis, 
bristling with guns, were sending forth a storm of shot ; boats from the 
fleet were striving for a landing. At first they were repelled by the 
gallant islanders, but eventually were successful. Then the great 
wooden ships, hitherto silent, replied to the cannonade from the fort, 
and a pall of smoke hid the scene from view. 

When the cannonading ended, and the smoke was blown away, the 
lilies of France no longer waved over the Fort. The watcher was a 
bride of a little more than a month, Madame Tascher de La-Pagerie, 
who had been compelled to part from her husband a week previous to 
the battle, when he was ordered to assist at the defense of the Fort. 
As a lieutenant of the forces, he could not evade his duty to the gov- 



264 JOSEPHINE IN HER YOUTH 

ernment. Madame Tascher could not yield to her desire for seclusion, 
but was obliged to attend to the affairs of the large plantation, with its 
dependent slaves. Two days had nearly passed, the second was nearing 
its close, when the mistress of La-Pagerie saw a negro riding up the 
palm-bordered avenue from the landing at the bay. Standing in the 
southern doorway, above the rose-garden, she saw behind this horse- 
man another, coming at a furious rate, and a few minutes later was 
sobbing on her husband's breast. 

Thus the artist introduces the parents of Josephine. 

Lieutenant Tascher resigned his commission and devoted himself 
entirely to agricultural occupations. His principal estate was this on 
which he and his bride had taken up their abode, and which had come to 
them as her dower; the beautiful valley of Sannois near the little hamlet 
of Trois-Ilets. 

Two years were spent in the cultivation of billowy fields of sugar- 
cane, and fragrant groves of coffee-trees, M. Tascher passing the time, 
outwardly tranquil, but inwardly disturbed by the thought that he and 
his family were the subjects of an alien government. His father, the 
first of the name in America, had come to this Island of Martinique 
in the year 1726. He was a personage of rank, as appears from his 
request, four years later, for the registration of his letters of nobility; 
a formality which the French noblemen coming to the Antilles never 
omitted. 

His request was granted, but not until 1745, and meanwhile he had 
been united in marriage to Mile, de La Chevalerie, the daughter of a 
wealthy family of the island. 

A son was born to them, Joseph Gaspard de La-Pagerie, whom they 
sent to be educated in France. The young man returned to Martinique 
in 1755, was appointed first lientenant of artillery, and actively engaged 
in the erection of batteries at Fort Royal, and chief port and naval sta- 
tion of the French West Indies. 

He formed an alliance with a rich Creole family, in November, 



JOSEPHINE IN HER YOUTH 265 

1761, by marriage with Mile. Rose-Clair des Verges de Sannois. 
Through her he came into possession of the estate of Sannois. There 
came a day when a daughter was born to him, and coincident with the 
announcement, the faint report of cannon across the bay. Fort Royal 
was rejoicing over the recession of Martinique. Then the cloud lifted 
from the planter's brow, for his daughter was a child of France ! 

This daughter of the Creole planter, whose birth was thus auspi- 
ciously announced by the salvos of returning peace, was none other than 
she who subsequently became celebrated as Josephine. 

The treaty of peace, by which Martinique, amongst other colonial 
possessions, had been restored to France, was signed on the 12th of Feb- 
ruary, 1763. A war ship brought the news to Fort Royal; the final 
transfer of troops and the installation of the new governor took place 
in June, on the 23d of which month Josephine was born. 

The child was christened Marie-Joseph-Rose, thus combining and 
perpetuating the baptismal names of her grandfather, grandmother, 
father and mother — -Marie-Joseph-Rose- Tascher de La-Pagerie, which 
was soon abbreviated to Josephine. 

Six years later, on the Island of Corsica, was born one with whom 
the name of Josephine is inseparably linked — Napoleon. 

Napoleon and Josephine ; we cannot but pause a moment to note the 
parallelism in the great events of their lives. Both were island-born; 
the one in a rock-ribbed isle of the Mediterranean, the other in a tropic 
segment of the Caribbean crescent. Both first saw the light soon after 
the accession of their native land to France. 

The mother of Josephine wrote to her sister expressions of her 
gratitude to God for "His gift of a daughter," and hoped the child 
would possess all the most agreeable traits of both ancestral families. 
That her desires were gratified, at least in this regard, history has as- 
sured us. 

A "child of the sun," a creature of love, laughter and careless gay- 
ety, was the youthful Josephine. As soon as she could walk outside 



266 JOSEPHINE IN HER YOUTH 

the doors of the "great house," she became the favorite companion of 
the slave-children, who swarmed about the establishment. Or, rather, 
they became her devoted adherents, guiding her footsteps. Accustomed 
to have her lightest fancy taken seriously, to have her orders obeyed 
as soon as uttered, she was in danger of becoming imperious and selfish. 
Only her native sweetness saved her. 

The planter's house was situated upon a natural terrace, escarped 
from the side of a steep hill. Behind it rose the hills that swung around 
the head of the valley that cut off the view in that direction. But in 
front the ground sloped toward the sea, to which led a broad and 
straight avenue of magnificent palms, their trunks straight as arrows, 
and over one hundred feet in height; their verdant crowns interlaced 
above the road. Between the house and the palm-avenue lay the rose- 
garden, rilled with plants that bloomed perpetually; their fragrance in- 
vaded and made delightful the atmosphere of the dwelling. A fruit- 
garden rambled around the outer edgQ of this paradise of roses. There 
was a brook that murmured to the sea through the garden. One of its 
pools was early selected by Josephine's mother as her bathing-place. It 
lay beneath a giant ceiba tree, a silk-cotton, whose buttressed trunk 
reached out into it, and above it spread its canopy of verdant foliage. 
Beneath the ceiba grew the mango and guava, the custard apple, sa- 
pote, banana, orange, plantain, calabash, and a hundred others. The 
golden-fruited mango shaded the veranda and dropped its delicious mor- 
sels for the little girl to find. The same tree, or one of its descendants, 
still casts its shade over the ground where Josephine played with her 
companions. On the hill-slopes gleamed the yellow cane, in the gorges 
grew the glossy-leaved coffee, with its crimson fruit. 

As regards accomplishments, Josephine played, especially on the 
harp, and sung with exquisite feeling, and with science sufficient to 
render listening an intellectual pleasure, without exciting the surmise 
that the cultivation of attainments less showy, but more valuable, had 
been sacrificed. Her dancing is said to have been perfect. An eye wit- 



JOSEPHINE IN HER YOUTH 267 

ness describes her light form, rising scarcely above the middle size, as 
seeming in its faultless symmetry to float rather than to move — *the 
very personation of grace. She exercised her pencil and her needle and 
embroidering frame with beautiful address. 

The following is the narrative in her own words, as she long after- 
ward related the circumstances to the ladies of her court : 

"One day, some time before my first marriage, while taking my 
usual walk, I observed a number of negro girls assembled round an old 
woman, engaged in telling their fortunes. I drew near to observe their 
proceedings. The old sibyl, on beholding me, uttered a loud exclama- 
tion, and almost by force seized my hand. She appeared to be under 
the greatest agitation. Amused at these absurdities, as I thought then, 
I allowed her to proceed, saying, 'So you discover something extraor- 
dinary in my destiny?' 'Yes.' Ts happiness or misfortune to be my 
lot?' 'Misfortune. Ah, stop! — and happiness, too.' 'You take care 
not to commit yourself, my good dame; your oracles are not the most 
intelligible.' T am not permitted to render them more clear,' said the 
woman, raising her eyes with a mysterious expression toward heaven. 
'But to the point,' I replied, for my curiosity began to be excited : 'what 
read you concerning me in futurity?' 'What do I see in the future? 
You will not believe me if I speak.' 'Yes, indeed, I assure you. Come, 
my good mother, what am I to fear and hope ?' 'On your own head be 
it then ; listen : You will be" married soon ; that union will not be happy ; 
you will become a widow, and then — you will be Queen of France! 
Some happy years will be yours; but you will die in a hospital amid 
civil commotion.' 

"On concluding these words," continued Josephine, "the old woman 
burst from the crowd and hurried away as fast her limbs, enfeebled by 
age, would permit. I forbade the bystanders to molest or banter the 
pretended prophetess on this ridiculous prediction; and took occasion, 
from the seeming absurdity of the whole proceeding, to caution the 
young negresses how they gave heed to such matters. Henceforth, I 



268 JOSEPHINE IN HEK YOUTH 

thought of the affair only to laugh at it with my relatives. But after- 
ward, when my husband had perished on the scaffold, in spite of my 
better judgment, this prediction forcibly recurred to my mind after a 
lapse of years ; and though I was then myself in prison, the transaction 
daily assumed a less improbable character, and I ended by regarding 
the fulfilment as almost a matter of course. 

"Such, ladies, is the exact truth respecting this so celebrated proph- 
ecy. The end gives me but little inquietude. I live here (at Navarre, 
at the divorce) peacefully, and in retirement; I have no concern with 
politics; I endeavor to do all the good in my power; and thus I hope 
to die in my bed." 

Dr. Memes published, in London in 1831, a work which is valuable 
chiefly from the circumstance that by copious extracts from her corre- 
spondence, the author makes Josephine, to a great extent, her own 
biographer. "The Memoirs of the Empress Josephine with notices of 
the Courts of Malmaison and Navarre," published in London in 1828, 
has also furnished interesting matter. It was written by a lady who 
was for a considerable time a resident of the court of Josephine. 

Becoming the wife of Vicomte Alexander de Beauharnais, Josephine, 
on the completion of her sixteenth year, fulfilled the first step in her 
destined greatness. Various circumstances had brought this young 
nobleman to the New World, among which the occurrences then taking 
place in the British American colonies were among the chief. What 
part he actually assumed in the American war of independence does not 
appear; but he certainly engaged on the side of the revolted colonists, 
and, in Josephine's own words, "had embraced the new ideas with all 
the ardor of a very lively imagination." 

The immediate cause of this young officer's arrival in Martinico was 
the necessity of proving a right to large estates which had fallen by 
inheritance to him and his brother, the Marquis de Beauharnais. How 
strangely fortuitous seem frequently the events of human life ! It hap- 
pened that these very domains bordered on the property of M. Renaudin, 



JOSEPHINE IN HER YOUTH 269 

and were at the very date in question, held by him on lease. This nat- 
urally enough made the young people acquainted; and a mutual at- 
tachment ensued between Beauharnais and Josephine. 

Circumstances seemed to concur in rendering this a very suitable 
union, as respected both the interests and the affections of the youthful 
parties. But unexpected obstacles arose in the opposition of relatives, 
which Josephine surmounted with a gentleness and address hardly to 
have been expected in a girl of sixteen. 

Soon after her marriage Josephine accompanied her husband to 
France, where they arrived in 1779. At this period Beauharnais, 
though many years older than his wife, was still only in the bloom of 
manhood, and the youthful pair are said to have created a sensation in 
the circles of the capital. Certain it is the manners and accomplish- 
ments of Josephine were admired in a court the gayest and most pol- 
ished in Europe; while, at the same time, the character and attentions 
of Marie Antoinette appear to have made on the grateful heart of the 
fair Creole an impression which subsisted through a life whose suc- 
cessive incidents were in apparent hostility to the royal cause. The 
succeeding summers were passed in provincial tours, chiefly in the 
North, or on the patrimonial estates in Brittany. Here, on the 3d of 
September, 1780, Josephine gave birth to her only son, Eugene, after- 
ward the celebrated viceroy of Italy; and in 1783 the family was com- 
pleted by the birth of a daughter, Hortense, subsequently Queen of Hol- 
land. 

Beauharnais, too, had loved his wife ardently, but, unhappily, his 
notions of conjugal fidelity were formed too much after the fashion of 
vice in high places, which had, for the two preceding reigns, cast a 
moral pestilence over the uppermost ranks in France. Madame de 
Beauharnais endured her wrongs for some time in patient forbearance, 
or remonstrated only with gentleness; but, seeing that her husband 
attached himself more and more to another, she infused a bitterness 
into her reproaches, which ended in estranging the affections she had 



270 JOSEPHINE IN HER YOUTH 

hoped to reclaim. Each persisted; and a separation was the conse- 
quence. This appears to have been effected by a personal agreement, not 
a legal process, and Josephine, with her children, returned to Martinico. 

After an absence of several years, as is evident from the following 
simple and effecting narrative, Josephine returned alone to France, and 
in circumstances far otherwise than affluent. The recital was given to 
the ladies of her court at Navarre, to whom, at their own request, she 
had one day shown her jewels — the most magnificent collection, be it 
remembered, in Europe. Observing the admiration bestowed upon 
"these dazzling inutilities," she addressed the junior members of her 
suite as follows: ''Believe me, my young friends, that splendor is not 
to be envied which does not constitute happiness. I shall doubtless very 
much surprise you by saying that the gift of a pair of old shoes afforded 
me at one time greater satisfaction than all these diamonds now before 
you ever did." 

Josephine's serious air assuring them of their mistake, they began, 
with one accord, to express their respectful desire of hearing the his- 
tory of these famous shoes, which, to their imaginations, already prom- 
ised greater wonders than the marvels of the glass slipper. 

"Yes, ladies," resumed their amiable mistress; "it is certain, that of 
all the presents I ever in my life received, the one which gave me the 
greatest pleasure was a pair of old shoes — and these, too, of course, 
leather! This you will understand in the sequel. 

"Quitting Martinico, I had taken a passage on board of a ship, 
where we were treated with an attention which I shall never forget. 
Having separated from my first husband, I was far from rich. Obliged 
to return to France on family affairs, the passage had absorbed the 
major part of my resources; and indeed, not without much difficulty 
had I been able to provide the most indispensable requisites for our 
voyage. Hortense, obliging and lively, performing with much agility 
the dances of the negroes, and singing their songs with surprising cor- 
rectness, greatly amused the sailors, who, from being her constant play- 




SECTION OF FLUME TO CONVEY WATER TO SUGAR MILLS IN HAWAII. 




LAVA FORMATION AT KILAUEA CRATER, 4,040 FEET HIGH, ISLAND OF HAWAII. 



JOSEPHINE IN HER YOUTH 273 

fellows, had become her favorite society. No sooner did she observe 
me to be engaged, than, mounting upon deck, and there the object of 
general admiration, she repeated all her little exercises to the satisfaction 
of every one. 

"An old quarter-master was particularly attached to the child; and 
whenever his duties permitted him a moment's leisure, he devoted the 
interval to his young friend, who, in turn, doted upon the old man. 
What with running, leaping, and dancing, my daughter's slight shoes 
were fairly worn out. Knowing she had not another pair, and fearing 
I would forbid her going upon deck should this defect in her attire be 
discovered, Hortense carefully concealed the disaster, and one day I 
experienced the distress of beholding her return, leaving every footmark 
in blood. Fearing some terrible accident, I asked in affright if she was 
hurt. 'No, Mamma.' 'But see, the blood is streaming from your feet.' 
'It is nothing, I assure you.' Upon examining how matters stood, I 
found the shoes literally in tatters, and her feet dreadfully torn by a 
nail. We were not yet more than half way; and before reaching France 
it seemed impossible to procure another pair of shoes. I felt quite 
overcome at the idea of the sorrow my poor Hortense would- suffer, as 
also at the danger to which her health might be exposed, by confine- 
ment in my miserable little cabin. We began to weep bitterly, and found 
no solace in our grief. At this moment entered our good friend the quar- 
ter-master, and, with honest bluntness, inquired the cause of our tears. 
Hortense, sobbing all the while, eagerly informed him that she would 
no more get upon deck, for her shoes were worn out, and mamma had 
no others to give her. 'Nonsense,' said the worthy seaman; 'is that all?' 
I have an old pair somewhere in my chest; I will go and seek them. 
You, madam, can cut them to the shape, and Til splice them up again 
as well as need be. Shiver my timbers ! on board ship you must put 
up with many things; we are neither landsmen nor fops, provided we 
have the necessary — that's the most principal.' Without giving time 
for a reply, away hastened the kind quartermaster in search of his old 



274 JOSEPHINE IN HER YOUTH 

shoes. These he soon after brought to us with a triumphant air, and 
they were received by Hortense with demonstrations of the most lively 
joy. To work we set with all zeal, and before day closed my daughter 
could resume her delightful duties of supplying their evening's diver- 
sion to the crew. I again repeat, never was present accepted with 
greater thankfulness. It has since often been matter of self-reproach 
that I did not particularly inquire into the name and history of our 
benefactor, who was known on board only as Jacques. It would have 
been gratifying to me to have done something for him when, afterward, 
means were in my power." 



CHAPTER XVIII. 

CREOLE AND CORSICAN. 

Of Caribbean and Mediterranean Isles — Empress and Emperor 
over All the Glories of France. 

One who witnessed the crowning of the Creole and Corsican in 
grand old Notre Dame, and their installation as Emperor and Empress 
in the Tuilleries, wrote of the leading characters in the splendid func- 
tion : 

"One of the chief beauties of the Empress Josephine was not merely 
her fine figure, but the elegant turn of her neck, and the way in which 
she carried her head ; indeed, her deportment altogether was conspicuous 
for dignity and grace. I have had the honor of being presented to many 
real princesses — to use the phrase of the Faubourg Saint Germain — but 
I never saw one who, to my eyes, presented so perfect a personification 
of elegance and majesty. 

"In Napoleon's countenance I could read the conviction of all I 
have just said. He looked with an air of complacency at the Empress, 
as she advanced towards him; and when she knelt down, when the 
tears she could not repress fell upon her clasped hands, as they were 
raised to heaven, or rather to Napoleon — both then appeared to enjoy 
one of those fleeting moments of pure felicity which are unique in a 
lifetime, and serve to fill up a lustrum of years. The Emperor per- 
formed with peculiar grace every action required of him during the 
ceremony; but his manner of crowning Josephine was most remark- 
able; after receiving the small crown surmounted by a cross, he had 
first to place it on his own head, and then to transfer it to that of the 
Empress. When the moment arrived for placing the crown on the head 
of the woman whom popular superstition regarded as his good genius, 

275 



276 CREOLE AND CORSICAN 

his manner was almost playful. He took great pains to arrange this 
little crown which was placed over Josephine's tiara of diamonds; he 
then put it on, took it off, and finally put it on again, as if to promise 
her she should wear it gracefully and lightly. My position enabled me 
fortunately to see and observe every minute action and gesture of the 
principal actors in this magical scene." 

After the coronation, "Napoleon then addressing Josephine, said, 
'I desire you will be dazzling in jewelry and richly dressed; do you 
hear?' 

" 'Yes/ replied Madame Bonaparte, 'and then you will find fault, 
perhaps fall into a passion; or you will erase my warrants of payment 
from the margins of my bills.' And she pouted like a little girl." 

The Empress was still a good girl and wrote to her mother in 
Martinique : 

"Bonaparte is now visiting Havre, Rouen, in fact all of Normandy, 
and I am accompanying him on the journey. Judge of my surprise and 
pleasure this morning to learn that a vessel was about to depart for 
Martinique. My pleasure was all the greater, as there had already set 
sail two vessels, before I had learned their intention to depart, and 
therefore could not profit by the occasion to write you. . . . How- 
ever, Bonaparte, sailing near to them, hailed the captain and told them 
to give you news of us. I am much happier, my dear mother, to give 
you this news myself, and to assure you that your children and grand- 
children love you very much, have the greatest desire to see you, and 
that there is but one thing lacking to my happiness, and that is to have 
you near me. Give me, my dear mother, this satisfaction, and there 
will be nothing lacking. Sell your property in Martinique, and come 
buy some in France. You ought to want to live here now, with your 
children; you can not stay there in the colonies, after knowing how 
much they wish you to be with them. * * * 

"I send you the particulars of the accouchement of Hortense; three 
weeks ago she was presented with a beautiful little boy. Bonaparte 



CREOLE AND CORSICAN 277 

will have him baptized, on our return, and will stand as godfather and 
I as godmother. He will be called Napoleon. Louis Bonaparte wrote 
you to announce his birth; he is the happiest of men to be a father; 
and above all, of a big boy. It gives me pleasure to tell you that their 
marriage is a very happy one, .and that they love each other very much." 

Josephine also wrote to her aunt at her old home, of the trial of her 
first husband for being an aristocrat : 

"Enclosed I send you an outline of my husband's examination, in 
which, as you will perceive, the ridiculous contends with the horrible. 
Such are the two features of our era. 

"President. Who are you? 

"M. de Beauhdrnais. A man and a Frenchman. 

"President. None of your gibes here! I demand your name. 

"M. de B. Eugene-Alexander de Beauharnais. 

"A Member. No de, if you please; it is too aristocratic. 

"M. de B. Feudal, you will say. It is certain a name without the 
particle would be more rational. The offence, if it be one, comes of 
time and my ancestors. 

"Another Member. Ah! so you have got ancestors? The confession 
is an honest one ; it is well to know as much. Note that, citizens ; he has a 
grandfather, and makes no secret of it. (Here nine of the twelve 
members composing the committee fell a-laughing.) One of those who, 
amid the general gayety, had maintained an appearance of seriousness, 
called out, in a loud tone, Tools, who does not know that ancestors are 
old musty parchments? Is it this man's fault if his credentials have 
not been burned? Citizen, I advise thee to bestow them here with the 
committee, and I give thee the assurance that a good bonfire shall soon 
render us an account of thine ancestors.' Here a ridiculous laughter 
took possession of the entire of the honorable council, and not without 
much difficulty could the fat president recall them to a sense of decorum. 
At the same time, this explosion of hilarity having put him into good 
humor, he politely requested the accused to be seated. Again he was 



278 CREOLE AND CORSICAN 

interrupted by a member calling him to order, for having used the plural 
to a suspected citizen. Hereupon the uproar began anew more vio- 
lently than ever, from the word Monsieur having been applied to the 
president by the member as a joke. Order once more established, my 
husband embraced the first moment of silence to felicitate the members 
on the innocent nature of their discussions, and to congratulate himself 
in having for judges magistrates of such a joyous disposition. 

"President, with an important air. Dost take our operations for 
farces ? Thou art prodigiously deceived. The suspected citizen is right, 
colleagues, in calling us his judges; that title ought to restore us to 
gravity. Formerly, it was permitted to laugh, now we must be serious. 

"M. de B. Such is the distinction between the old and new regime. 

"President. Proceed we then seriously, and continue the examina- 
tion. Citizen Jarbac (to one of the secretaries), be'st thou there? (To 
M. de B.) Thy titles and qualities? 

"M. de B. A French citizen, and a general in the service of the 
republic. 

"A Member. President, he does not declare all; he was formerly 
a — 

"Another Member. A prince or a baron, at least. 

"M. de B., smiling. Only a vicomte, if so please you, and quite 
enough, too. 

"President. Enough! it is a great deal too much: so you confess 
being a noble? 

"M. de B. I confess that so men called me, and so, for some time, 
I believed, under the reign of ignorance, habit and prejudice. 

"President. Acknowledge also that you are not yet entirely dis- 
abused ? 

"M. de B. The obstinacy of some men who persist in combating a 
chimera preserves for such things a sort of reality. As for myself, I 
have long regarded the illusion as dissipated. Reason had taught me 
that there could exist no distinction save those which result from virtue, 



CREOLE AND CORSICAN 279 

talent, or service ; a sound policy has since demonstrated to me that there 
ought to exist no others. 

"Citizen Nevil. That I call reasoning from principle. 

"President. Without denying the consequences, whence has the 
accused derived these principles? From the Constitutional Assembly? 

"M. de B. I consider it an honor to have been a member of that 
assembly. " 

"President. Did you not even preside there? 

"M. de B. Yes, citizen; and at an ever memorable era. 

"President. That was — after the flight of the tyrant? 

"M. de B. That was on the occasion of the journey of Louis XVI. 
to Varennes, and on his return. 

"A Member. For a bet, the citizen does not consider Louis Capet to 
have been a tyrant. 

"M. de B. History will explain, and posterity will pronounce. 

"Citizen Nevil. The question here is not what citizen Beauharnais 
thinks, but what he has done. 

"President. Just — most just : see we, then, what citizen Beauhar- 
nais has done. 

"M. de B. Nothing; and that in a distempered time, I conceive to 
have been the best of all proceedings. 

"President. Thus you declared for no party? 

"M. de B. No — if by party you mean factions which hate each other, 
rend the state, and impede the reign of the laws, and the strengthening 
of the republic; but yes — if by party you understand the immense ma- 
jority of the French people who desire independence and liberty : of that 
party am I. 

"(Josephine to her aunt.) 

"Will you believe it, my dear aunt? My children have just under- 
gone a long and minute examination ! That wretched old man, member 
of the committee, and whom I have repeatedly named to you, introduced 
himself into my house; and under pretence of feeling interested in my 



280 CREOLE AND CORSICAN 

husband, and of entertaining me, set my poor ones a-talking. I confess 
that at first I was completely thrown off my guard by this stratagem; 
only I could not help wondering at the affability of such a personage. 
Innate guile, however, soon betrayed itself when the children replied in 
terms whence it was impossible to extort the least implication against 
their unfortunate parents. Thus I speedily detected the deceit. 

"When he perceived I had penetrated his craft, he ceased to feign, 
and declaring that he had been charged with obtaining from my chil- 
dren information so much the more certain as being ingenuous, he 
proceeded to interrogate them in form. Upon this avowal, I was sen- 
sible of an inexpressible revulsion taking place within me; I felt that 
I grew pale with affright — that I now reddened with anger — now 
trembled with indignation. 

"I was on the point of expression to this hoary revolutionist the 
loathing with which he inspired me, when the thought arose that I 
might thus do injury to my husband, against whom this execrable man 
shows inveterate enmity, then I repressed my resentment in silence. 
Upon his desiring to be left alone with my little ones, I felt again the 
spirit of resistance rising within me; but such ferocity appeared in his 
looks that I was constrained to obey. 

"Having locked up Hortense in a closet, he commenced by question- 
ing her brother. When my daughter's turn came, oh, how I trembled 
on perceiving the length to which her examination extended! for our 
inquisitor had not failed to remark in the dear girl an acuteness and 
penetration far beyond her years. 

"I continued plunged in these reflections, when a loud knocking 
was heard at the outer door of the house. I perceived that my hour was 
come, and, finding the requisite courage in the very consciousness that 
the blow was inevitable, I resigned myself to endurance. While the 
tumult continued increasing, I passed into my children's apartment; 
they slept! and their peaceful slumber, contrasted with their mother's 
trouble, made me weep. I impressed upon my daughter's forehead, alas ! 



CREOLE AND CORSICAN 281 

perhaps my last kiss ; she felt the maternal tears, and, though still asleep, 
clasped her arms round my neck, whispering, in broken murmurs, 'Come 
to bed, fear nothing; they shall not take you away this night. I have 
prayed to God for you.' " 

Beauharnais, soon after the interview now described, unheard, un- 
tried, and nothing proved against him save the suspicion of the enemies 
of aristocrats, was ordered for execution. The sentence announced on 
the 6th Thermidor (24th July, 1794) was carried into effect next morn- 
ing, only two days before the fate of the tyrant Robespierre himself. 

Had vengeance overtaken Robespierre two days sooner, or had the 
proceedings against her husband been delayed for eight and forty hours, 
how different the lot of Josephine ! 

Beauharnais suffered on the morning of the 7th Thermidor, in an 
obscure spot of Paris, near the barrier of the throne, in the Fauxburg 
St. Antoine. To this situation the guillotine had previously been re- 
moved from its former situation in the Square of the Revolution, and 
the more civilized region of the capital, upon Robespierre's discovering 
that blood was becoming less acceptable to the Parisians. With the 
vicomte there perished in the same morning a number of other victims, 
most of them knew not wherefore they had been brought to execution. 
These, both men and women, like the thousands who had preceded them, 
were drawn to the place of final suffering on a kind of tumbrel, or cart, 
stigmatized as "enemies of the republic," and in a brief space of time 
lay undistinguished and headless trunks. Such was the "morning's 
work" for many a dreary day of suffering to France. 

The end of Robespierre during the preceding night saved Madame 
de Beauharnais, with about seventy others, destined for the usual morn- 
ing sacrifice to the "deities of Reason and Revolution." Had we not 
her own confession, it might be deemed altogether incredible that under 
such circumstances, Josephine's thoughts should involuntarily revert to, 
and dwell upon, the singular prediction which has already been reported 
in the commencement of these memoirs. 



282 CREOLE AND CORSICAN 

"In spite of myself," said the empress, long after, to her ladies, 
"I incessantly revolved in my mind this prophecy. Accustomed thus to 
exercise imagination, every thing that had been told me began to appear 
less absurd, and finally terminated in my almost certain belief. One 
morning the jailer entered the chamber, which served as bedroom for 
the Duchess d'Aiguillon, myself, and two other ladies, telling me, that 
he came to take away my flock-bed, in order to give it to another cap- 
tive. 'How give it ?' eagerly interrupted Madame d'Aiguillon ; 'is, then, 
Madame de Beauharnais to have a better ?' 'No, no ; she will not need 
one,' replied the wretch, with an atrocious laugh; 'she is to be taken 
to a new lodging and from thence to the guillotine.' At these words, 
my companions in misfortune set up a loud lamentation. I consoled 
them in the best manner I could. At length, wearied by their continued 
bewailings, I told them that there was not even common sense in their 
grief; that not only should I not die, but that I should become Queen 
of France. 'Why, then, do you not appoint your household?' asked 
Madame d'Aiguillon, with something like resentment. 'Ah! that is 
true — I had forgotten. Well, my dear, you shall be maid of honor; 
I promise you the situation.' Upon this, the tears of these ladies flowed 
more abundantly; for they thought, on seeing my coolness at such a 
crisis, that misfortune had affected my reason. 'I do assure you,' con- 
tinued the empress, addressing her auditory, 'that I did not affect a 
courage which I felt not ; for I was, even then, persuaded that my oracle 
was about to be realized.' " 

A few evenings before this, Josephine had witnessed the weak and 
almost romantic means by which the tyrant's overthrow had been at least 
hastened, and the consummation of her own prophecy accomplished. 
One of the ladies detained, as above described, in the same chamber 
was Madame du Fontenay, formerly Mademoiselle Cabaris, and who, 
subsequently divorced from her first husband, became so celebrated 
under the name of the second. 

Prior to her incarceration, Tallien had declared his passion; but, 



CREOLE AND CORSICAN 283 

unable to save Madame du Fontenay from revolutionary law, came 
daily to the prison, that he might at least enjoy the satisfaction of seeing 
her through the grated window. Even for a considerable space previous 
to the date at which we are now arrived, Tallien was the life and soul 
of the conspiracy secretly organized by the Mountain party, against the 
despotism of Robespierre. Circumspection, however, was no less neces- 
sary than resolution; for, though the conspirators perceived their own 
or the dictator's destruction to be inevitable, alternatively distrusting the 
means of opposition, or catching the fading popularity of their victim, 
Ihey preferred, for a little, to follow the progress of events to hazarding 
doubtful conclusions. 

In this state of things, Tallien, as usual, appeared one evening at 
the guarded casement of the Carmelites. Meanwhile, Madame de 
Fontenay had secretly learned that she was speedily to be called before 
the Convention. This she knew to be but a prelude to the block : aware 
also of Tallien's designs, she resolved to urge their execution, and thus 
to secure at least a chance of escape. 

The two ladies Fontenay and Beauharnais appeared in the evening 
leaning on each other, as if to breathe the fresh air through their prison 
bars. The former made a sign, to all others imperceptible, soliciting 
Tallien's attention. It may easily be imagined with what anxiety both 
watched his motions, as they beheld him lift from the ground a piece of 
cabbage-stalk, flung from the window by Madame de Fontenay, and in 
which she had concealed the following note : 

"My trial is decreed — the result is certain. If you love me, as you 
say, urge every means to save France and me." 

Tallien, having secured his billet, resolved on immediate action. 
From agitating in the committees, he proceeded to the Convention, 
where, as upon an arena, Robespierre had prepared to meet his opponents. 

Tallien had pledged himself to mount the breach in the first assault ; 
and bravely did he redeem his word, when — forcing St. Just from the 
tribune, as the latter pronounced the w r ords, "I lift the veil" — he ex- 



284: CREOLE AND CORSICAN 

claimed, in a voice of terrible emphasis, "I rend it asunder!" and con- 
tinued, in a speech with the wild but powerful eloquence of the period, 
turning the execrations and the daggers of the whole assembly against 
him at whose least nod its chiefest members had trembled. 

But, to return to the consequences as they affected Josephine, and 
as related by herself. "Madame d'Aiguillon, feeling herself ill from 
the thoughts of my approaching execution, so abruptly communicated, 
I drew her towards the window, which I opened, in order to admit air. 
I then perceived a woman of the lower class, who was making many 
gestures to us, which we could not understand. Every moment she 
caught and held up her gown, without our finding it possible to compre- 
hend her meaning. Observing her to persevere, I cried out, 'Robe' (a 
gown), on which she made a sign of affirmation. Then, taking up a 
stone, she put it in her apron, and again held up her gown to us, 
raising the stone in the other hand; 'Pierre' (stone), I called out to her 
in return. Her joy was extreme On perceiving, to a certainty, that we 
at length understood her. Putting the stone into her gown, she several 
times, and with great eagerness, made the sign of cutting a throat, and 
fell a-dancing and shouting. This singular pantomime excited in our 
minds an emotion which it is impossible to describe, since we dared not 
to think that the woman thus intimated to us the death of Robespierre. 
At the very moment, while thus between hope and fear, we heard a great 
noise in the corridor, and the formidable voice of the turnkey, who was 
speaking to his dog, and, in the act of kicking him away, cried out, 'Go, 
you brute of a Robespierre !' It was the 9th Thermidor ! My flock-bed 
was restored to me, and upon this couch I passed the most delightful 
night of my life. I fell- asleep, after saying to my companions, 'You see, 
I am not guillotined — and I shall yet be Queen of France !' ' 



CHAPTER XIX. 

THE JOSEPHINE LETTERS OF NAPOLEON. 

He Was a Torrid and She a Temperate Correspondent — She 
Wrote Love Letters to Her Mother and Children — Her 
Seniority — Napoleon's Laws unto Herself. 

Josephine was of the type of the women of French, tropical blood 
who perished so tragically in the horrors of San Domingo, following 
the slave insurrection, and there is seen something of the savagery of the 
period in the fact that an attempt upon the life of Josephine's mother 
by one of her servants, who proposed the use of poison, was punished 
by burning the black girl at the stake. The atmosphere of the West 
Indies was tropical, and the marvelous riches of the islands was largely 
volcanic, though chiefly the accumulation of wonderful vegetation. 

Napoleon was an Italian, and his blood was of the race once master- 
ful, and of the tropical conquerors. His imagination was Asiatic and 
his dreams Oriental. There was a splendid extravagance in his imagery, 
seen alike in his addresses in Egypt before the Pyramids, and on the way 
from Elba to Paris with an eagle's flight. His letters to Josephine were 
imperial in the expression of an infatuation. 

Josephine's departure from St. Pierre to Paris was in the month of 
September, 1790, and her arrival in France, and at Paris, where she 
was joyfully received by Beauharnais, followed in due course. The 
story so often related that she returned on board a merchant vessel, and 
in great straits, not having means with which to pay for her passage, 
is refuted by the evidence of contemporary letters, which show that she, 
on the contrary, was the honored guest of the nation, and made her last 
voyage to France on a ship of the State. As she was there by invita- 
tion of its commander, the presumption is that her passage was free ; 

2S5 



2S6 JOSEPHINE LETTERS 

and that she was not impoverished is shown by the remittance at various 
times during her stay in Martinique, of the aggregate sum of 17,403 
francs, to her aunt, in repayment of loans from that relative. 

In her Memoirs, Josephine says : "I had long ago entreated my 
mother to come and settle in France, and had held out to her the most 
flattering prospects. Napoleon himself had promised to receive her with 
the greatest distinction. 'I shall treat her nobly,' he said, 'and T am sure 
she will better sustain the honors of her rank than a certain lady of my 
household,' Madame Letitia, who was very parsimonious. But Mme. 
de La Pagerie would not accede to her daughter's wishes, and even if 
she did not prefer the quiet abode at Trois-Ilet, had many doubts as to 
the stability of Josephine's fortunes. 

Finally, acting upon the advice of friends at Dunkirk, to which port 
the Martinique sugars were shipped, she resolved to make a flying visit to 
Hamburg, where was established the banking-house through which her 
remittances were received. She arrived towards the last of October, 
and was cordially received by the banker, M. Mathiessen, through whose 
advice she was enabled to effect three bills of exchange on Martinique, 
as appears from a letter to her mother, dated 30th October, 1795, from 
Hamburg: * * * 

''You will receive, then, my dear mamma, three bills of exchange, 
drawn upon you from Hamburg, the 25th October, at three-months' 
sight, in my favor, in three sums, as follows: 400, 350 and 250 pounds 
sterling. * * * I need not remind you how necessary it is to honor 
these drafts, since they are for the reimbursement of the friends who 
have so generously assisted me and my children. * * * 

"Why do you hesitate to rejoin us, my dear mamma? Think how 
much trouble and vexation your coming would save your dear Yeyette, 
who lives only in the expectation of soon seeing you, and of realizing 
the hopes she has so long and so ardently cherished. It is also the advice 
of our friends : to convert everything possible into funds, and come to 
us as soon as agreeable, to rejoin your own children, who love you and 



JOSEPHINE LETTERS 287 

will ever cherish you. Receive this assurance of tenderest regard, my 
good and well-beloved mamma. 

"La-Pagerie, veuve Beauharnais/' 

The love-letters of the First Consul have been preserved ; they attest 
the most ardent passion, the tenderest devotion. One of the first depicts 
his despair in glowing colors : * * * "Every moment takes me far- 
ther away from you, and every moment I feel less able to endure the 
separation. You are ever in my thoughts; my fancy tires itself in try- 
ing to imagine your present occupation. If I picture you sad, my heart 
is wrung and my grief increased. If happy and merry with your friends, 
I blame you for so soon forgetting the three days' painful separation; 
in that case you are frivolous, not capable of deep feeling. So, as you 
see, I am hard to please. When I am asked if I have rested well, I 
cannot answer until a messenger brings me word that you have rested 
well. The illness or anger of men affect me only so far as I imagine 
they may have affected you." 

And later in the year, after successive victories had perched upon 
his banners : * * * "At length, my adored Josephine, I live again. Death 
is no longer before me, and glory and honor are still in my breast. 
The enemy is beaten at Areola. To-morrow we will repair the blunder 
of Vaubois, who abandoned Rivoli. In eight days Mantua will be 
ours, and then thy husband will fold thee in his arms, and give thee a 
thousand proofs of his ardent affection. I shall proceed to Milan as 
soon as I can. I am a little fatigued. I have received letters from 
Hortense and Eugene. I am delighted with the children. I will send 
you their letters as soon as I am joined by my household, which is now 
somewhat dispersed. We have made five thousand prisoners and killed 
at least six thousand of the enemy. Adieu, my adorable one. Think of 
me often. When you cease to love your Achilles; when your heart 
grows cool towards him, you will be very cruel, very unjust. But I am 
sure you will always continue my faithful mistress, as I shall ever 
remain your fond lover. Death alone can break the union which sym- 



2S8 JOSEPHINE LETTERS 

pathy, love and sentiment have formed. Let me have news of your 
health. * * * A thousand and a thousand kisses." 

"O, my adorable wife; I do not know what fate awaits me, but if 
it keeps me longer from you I shall not be able to endure it ; my courage 
will not hold out to that point. There was a time when I was proud of 
that courage; and when I thought of the harm that men might do me, 
of the lot that my destiny might reserve for me, I looked at the most 
terrible misfortunes without alarm. But now the thought that my 
Josephine may be in trouble, that she may be ill ; and, above all, the cruel, 
fatal thought that she may love me less, inflicts my soul with torture, 
stops the beating of my heart, makes me sad and dejected, robs me of 
even the courage of fury and despair. I often used to say : Man can do 
no harm to one who is willing to die; but now, to die without being 
loved by you, without this certainty, is the torture of hell. * * * It 
seems to me as if I were choking. My only companion, you who have 
been chosen by fate to make with me the painful journey of life; the day 
when I shall no longer possess your heart will be that in which for me 
the world shall have lost all warmth, all attractiveness. * * * But 
I will stop, my own, my soul is sad. I am tired, my mind is exhausted ; 
I am sick of men ; I have good reasons for hating them, for they separate 
me from my love." 

She preferred enjoying her husband's triumphs in Paris to joining 
him in Italy. * * '* One writer has even said : "J ose P mne found a good 
deal of amusement in Bonaparte's passion. I can hear her say with her 
Creole accent : 'How funny Bonaparte is !' This may be an exaggera- 
tion, with more or less of malice; but there is no doubt she was less in 
love with her husband than he was with her. More than this, it is doubt- 
ful if she could understand this passion, so blind, so absorbing; it must 
have wearied, if it did not even annoy and embarrass her. She had not 
then awakened to its value, could not understand that at her feet was 
the heart of a man so transcendentally superior to the average of men that 
his love was to be desired above all treasures of earth and heaven. She 





FLUME USED TO CONVEY WATER TO SUGAR MILLS IN HAWAII. 







SURF BOAT USED BY THE NATIVES OF HONOLULU. 



JOSEPHINE LETTERS 291 

awoke, too late, to a realization of its worth ; of its surpassing precious- 
ness ; she lived to regret, with tears and remorse, the passing of this pas- 
sion." * * * Says Madame de Remusat : "Possibly the cold recep- 
tion with which his ardent feelings were met had its influence upon, 
and at last benumbed him." 

No wonder that he reproaches her with being cold and unre- 
sponsive: * * * "Your letters * . * * one would think they 
had been written after we had been married fifteen years. They are full 
of friendliness and the feelings' of life's winter. * * * What more 
can you do to distress me? Stop loving me? That you have already 
done. Hate me? Well, I wish you would. Everything degrades me 
except hatred; but indifference — still, a thousand kisses, tender, like my 
heart. 

"Tortona, Midi, le 27 Prairial, An IV., 

de la Republique, 15th June, 1796. 
"To Josephine: 

"My life is a perpetual nightmare — a black presentiment makes even 
breathing difficult. I am no longer alive; I have lost more than life; 
more than happiness, more than peace ; I am almost without hope. I am 
sending you a courier. He will stay only four hours in Paris and 
then will bring me your answer. Write me at least ten pages ; that is the 
only thing that can console me in the least. You are ill ? You love me ; 
I have distressed you; you are with child, and I do not see you. This 
thought reproaches me. I have treated you so ill that I do not know 
how to set myself right again in your eyes. * * * I have been 
blaming you for staying in Paris, and all the time you have been ill. 
Forgive me, my sweet; the love with which you have filled me has 
deprived me of my reason, and I fear I shall never recover it. For it is 
a malady from which there is no recovery. My forebodings are so 
gloomy that all I ask is to see you, to press you to my heart for two 
hours, and that we may die together. * * * Who is taking care 
of you? I suppose that you have sent for Hortense. I love the child 



292 JOSEPHINE LETTERS 

a thousand times better, since I think that she may be able to console 
}'OU a little. As for me, I am without consolation, rest, hope, until I see 
again the courier whom I am sending to you, and until you explain to me 
in a long letter just what is the matter with you and how serious it is. 
If there were any danger, I assure you that I should at once leave for 
Paris. * * * Josephine, how could you allow so long a time to go 
by without writing me ? Your last brief letter was dated the third of the 
month (226. May; doubtless she had written, but her letters had gone 
astray). However, I carry it with me always in my pocket. Your let- 
ters and your portrait are ever before my eyes. I am nothing without 
you. Ah, Josephine, if you could have known my heart, would you 
have allowed so long a time to go by before leaving, or if you had not 
lent ear to those who would detain you ? I suspect all the world ; every- 
body about you. * * * I calculate that you will leave about the fifth 
and arrive at Milan on the fifteenth (4th of May and 3d of June). 

"Josephine, if you love me, if you believe that everything depends 
upon your preservation, upon your safe arrival, be very careful of your- 
self. Travel by short stages; write me at every stopping-place, and 
send the letters on in advance. * * * I think upon your illness 
night and day. Without appetite, without sleep, without interest in 
anything, friendship, glory, country; it is you, you; and the rest of the 
world exists no more than if it were annihilated. 

"I value honor for your sake, victory because it gives you pleasure; 
if it were not so I should have left all and cast myself at your feet. 
Sometimes I say; I alarm myself without cause; she is already on the 
way. * * * Vain thought ; you are still in your bed, still suffering, 
more beautiful, more interesting, more adorable; you are pale, your eyes 
more languishing. * * * Truly fate is cruel, she strikes me through 
you. 

"In your letter, my friend, take care to assure me that you are con- 
vinced that I love you beyond conception ; that you are persuaded that 
all my time is consecrated to you, that not an hour passes without 



JOSEPHINE LETTEKS 293 

thoughts of you; that the idea never occurs to me to think of another 
woman; that they are without grace, beauty and wit; that you, you 
alone, have absorbed all the faculties of my soul * * * that my soul is 
in your body, and the day in which you shall change or- cease to love 
me will be that of my death; that nature, the earth, is only beautiful 
because you inhabit it. * * * If you believe not all that, if your love 
is not convinced, affected, then you grieve me, you love me not. There 
is a magnetic fluid between those who love. (Do not all lovers believe 
this, and declare that occult influences are exerted for their benefit 
alone?) 

"You know that I could not endure the thought of another lover, still 
less to suffer one to exist: to tear out his heart and to see him would 
be one and the same thing. * * * 

"But I am sure and proud of your love. * * * ■ A child as ador- 
able as its mother will be born and will pass several years in your arms. 
Unlucky I must content myself with a single day. A thousand kisses 
upon your eyes, upon your lips. * * * Adorable woman, what is the 
secret of your influence? I am very sick on account of your illness; I 
have already a burning fever. Do not detain the courier more than six 
hours, that he may promptly return bearing the cherished letter of my 
queen. B." 

Josephines mother, like Napoleon's, did not believe in the. perpetuity 
of the imperial splendor of the couple who, from the Caribbean and the 
Mediterranean, met in Paris, and had the Pope at least as a spectator 
of their coronation, though Napoleon did the crowning himself. He 
was hasty when his great fortunes came to assert himself as the maker 
of the laws by which he was to be governed. Josephine was at least 
six years older than he, and had children, and Napoleon thought it a 
matter of state that he should prove the proposition that he could be a 
father as well as Josephine a mother. When he was in Egypt, Junot was 
good enough to tell him the stories that Josephine was misbehaving in 
Paris, and he was almost in convulsions of rage about his wife, though 



294 JOSEPHINE LETTERS 

his irregular personal conduct at Cairo was no secret to the army. 
Josephine was so gracious as to congratulate him on the birth of the 
King of Rome. She died while Napoleon was at Elba, and on his return 
from that episode he grieved over her memory in their old home at 
Malmaison, and spoke of her with great-tenderness, as he disdained that 
which was said of the conduct of Marie Louise while he was at St. 
Helena. 

Josephine's first appearance at a reception of the First Consul is thus 
described: "Her dress was muslin; her hair without decoration of any 
kind, and merely retained by a plain comb d'ecaille, fell in tresses upon her 
neck, in the most becoming negligence ; a collar of pearls, an unobtrusive 
ornament, but of great value, harmonized with and completed this un- 
pretending costume. " 

We have the evidence of an eye witness, that "a spontaneous murmur 
of admiration followed Josephine's entrance, such being the grace and 
dignity of her deportment that with all this absence of the external 
attributes of rank a stranger would at once have fixed upon the principal 
personage in this splendid circle. Madame Bonaparte made the tour of 
the apartments, the members of the foreign diplomacy being first intro- 
duced in succession by the minister. When the introductions had nearly 
concluded, the First Consul entered, but without being announced, 
dressed in a plain chasseur uniform, with a sash of tri-colored silk. In 
this simplicity both good taste and sound policy concurred. The occasion 
was not a levee; the first magistrate and his wife merely received the 
congratulations of their fellow-citizens of a free republic. 

"The personal appearance and kindly character of Josephine in the 
first days of Corsican and Creole Empire were touched up with this 
fine flattery. Her eyes were deep blue, her hair brown, not over lux- 
uriant, her complexion dark, her mouth small, the lips parted in a smile 
of exceeding sweetness, the nose with arched and sensitive nostrils, and 
inclined to retrousse. She was not a beauty, although she had more 
than fulfilled the promise of her youth, as we have seen her at Mar- 



JOSEPHINE LETTEES 295 

tinique, and on her arrival in France. She could not compare in respect 
to mere personal attractions with Mme. Tallien, nor with Xapoleon's 
sister, Pauline, later a reigning belle ; but Josephine completely realized 
one's ideal of an attractive, fascinating woman, with an air of distinc- 
tion about her that impressed all who met her, particularly Bonaparte, 
on his first acquaintance, who had from birth a penchant toward the 
aristocracy." 

Said the observant Talleyrand, when asked about her : * * * "Avait- 
elle de Y esprit? Elle s'en passait superieurement bien" Says Madame de 
Ramusat: "Without being precisely pretty, she possessed many per- 
sonal charms; her features were delicate, her expression was sweet; her 
mouth was very small and concealed her bad teeth ; her complexion was 
rather dark, but with artificial aids she remedied that defect. Her figure 
was perfect;. her limbs flexible and delicate; her movements easy and 
elegant. La-Fontaine's lines could never have been more fitly applied 
than to her : l Et la grace, plus belle encore que la bcaute! * * * She 
dressed with perfect taste, enhancing the elegance of whatever she wore. 
* * * To all her qualities she added extreme kindness of heart, a 
remarkably even temper, and great readiness to forget a wrong that had 
been done her." 

In, her correspondence with her second husband, she was rather con- 
servative and reserved. A truly tropical woman, she was temperate 
indeed when she took her pen in hand and Xapoleon did not fancy her 
style. Her most affectionate letters were written to her mother in Mar- 
tinique. She had been a woman of sorrows ; lost her first husband, who 
was guillotined by the terrors of the Robespierre time; and was herself 
notified when in prison and expecting the axe, by a woman who executed 
a pantomime, shaking a robe and hurling a stone (pierre), making out 
the name of the falling tyrant. 

The house in which Josephine was born does not present a picture to 
equal the story of its glories. This is authoritatively explained in Wil- 



296 JOSEPHINE LETTERS 

liam Agnew Patten's Voyage to the Caribbees (Scribner & Sons, 1896), 
as follows: 

"The La-Pagerie family were of aristocratic origin, possessed estates 
of by no means limited extent, and were considered people of importance, 
if not, indeed, of high rank. The parents of the future viscountess and 
empress dwelt for some time after their marriage in the family mansion, 
which was situated near the little cottage of the sketch; in fact, the 
latter was but one of the numerous negro quarters erected on the home 
estate for the accommodation of the family slaves. Shortly before the 
birth of Josephine, the grand e maison was utterly destroyed by fire, and 
Madame de La-Pagerie was compelled to seek shelter in the outbuilding 
whereof the Salmagundian has given the readers of this book a faith- 
ful illustration. So it fell out that the little Creole Esther, whose fate 
was to be so unfortunate as to find favor in the sight of a greater than 
Ahasuerus, was born in a miserable shanty of rough, unhewn stone, 
thatched with leaves of palm trees and wild plantains." 



CHAPTER XX. 

EARTHQUAKES OF ,1832. 

Disturbances in New England and the St. Lawrence Valley- 
Manifestations in Other Parts of the United States — « 
Tremors in Antioch — Unruly Activity of Vesuvius* — A 
Cloud of Witnesses. 

There is nothing in which the forgetfulness of men of calamities 
more frequently and conspicuously appear than in regard to the earth- 
quake visitations, so often in all ages distinguished as appalling disas- 
ters, taking everybody by surprise, and little matter what happens a 
generation or two after some memorable catastrophe, that which suc- 
ceeds is equally surprising. In the year 1832 earthquakes were frequent 
and calamitous, and the first of the phenomena so disturbing in that 
year was in New England and the Valley of the St. Lawrence, extending 
from Portland and Belfast, Me., about two hundred miles northeast, and 
sixty miles southwest of Quebec, where the greatest mischief was done. 
The ice bridge over the river was full of fissures, and many walls were 
cracked. There were two shocks at Lancaster, N. H., and there were 
tremors at about the same time and the same day, and shocks of similar 
character were noticed nearly at the same time in Russia, over a hun- 
dred persons perishing in the City of Shamaka. This was January 15th. 
The following month there were shocks in Michigan, and Cairo, 111. In 
March there were shocks in Prussia and many parts of Germany. In 
California there were agitations, affecting the eastern and western slopes 
of the Sierra Nevadas. The movement extended into Mexico. There 
were rumbling sounds before and after the shocks, fissures miles in 
length, some reported to be two hundred, feet wide, and the ground was 
in other places heaped in ridges, springs stopped flowing and new springs 

297 



298 EARTHQUAKES OF 1832 

burst forth. Prof. J. D. Whitney contributed a paper to the Overland 
Monthly, and considered that the impulse by which the earthquake orig- 
inated "was given somewhere nearly in the axis of the Sierras, at a depth 
of at least fifty miles, and at the same moment along a line of almost 
one hundred miles north and south. The resulting waves were propa- 
gated in both directions from this mountain-axis and nearly parallel 
with it, and advanced on the surface at a rate of from thirty to thirty- 
five miles a minute, if measured in a line at right angles to the axis of 
the Sierras." 

The most destructive shock was that on April 30th, which the ancient 
City of Antioch suffered. Such experiences had not been noted in that 
region during the Christian era. The shock was felt all over Syria, and 
from the Mediterranean to the Euphrates. It was estimated that a thou- 
sand persons lost their lives in Antioch, and that about half the city was 
destroyed. Slighter vibrations continued for a month. Aleppo was 
much injured. The following extracts from letters to English papers 
give some particulars of the frightful catastrophe. Rev. W. Brown 
Kerr, late harbor chaplain at Bombay, says : 

"A severe shock of earthquake was felt here yesterday, precisely at 
8 a. m., English reckoning, or shortly before 2 in the day, Turkish time. 
The house in which I was was shaken violently to and fro for four or 
five seconds, or, as one gentleman thinks, even more. A stove weighing 
nearly a hundred-weight was overturned ; the walls of stone and plaster, 
with wood-work and beams, were cracked, and the plaster fell on all 
sides. Books were thrown from their cases, and a clock hurled from a 
bracket on the wall into an arm-chair a few feet distant, without break- 
ing the glass-case or the clock-works. Outside the house-walls fell, the 
narrow streets (only about twelve or fifteen feet wide, and some less) 
being literally blocked up for long distances with the ruins of fallen 
houses, and a dense cloud of dust arose on all sides. Men, women and 
children ran hither and thither, wailing their own hurts or the loss of 
relatives. I went down to the bridge, southwest of the city, about two 



EARTHQUAKES OF 1832 299 

hours after — at 10 o'clock a. m. — and saw many dead persons brought 
to the city and laid out for burial. Later, I counted fifteen new graves, 
all close by each other. Looking toward the town, ruins could be seen 
in all directions. Several aqueducts were broken, and telegraph-poles 
were thrown down and the wires broken. The Greek Church, a stone- 
arched structure, built only a few years ago, and capable of holding 500 
or 600 persons, was utterly ruined — one side and the entire roof are 
gone. The American Protestant Church and premises are also greatly 
injured, and four persons of their small community were killed, though 
the mission families are all safe. The number of killed and injured can- 
not be ascertained with any approach to accuracy, and, of course, flying 
rumors are abundant, one man saying that he thought there must be 
1,000 killed, while another said 500, and a third 250, which is, perhaps, 
within the truth. The city contains from 12,0001 to 15,000 persons, it 
is said, but no accurate census exists. There was time from the begin- 
ning of the first shock to its close for many to escape the falling houses 
or walls, and during its continuance two or three persons in the house 
where I write walked across the room and (not very quickly) down- 
stairs while the shock lasted. Several smaller and lighter shocks oc- 
curred for an hour or two afterward, but not sufficiently strong to shake 
down buildings. The shocks have continued at intervals through the 
night, and another, more distinct and wave-like, was felt to shake the 
house, with a loud, hollow, rumbling noise, about 6:30 this morning. 
The first shock yesterday was immediately preceded by a rumbling and 
creaking of the joints of the window and door frames, to which a louder 
noise, like thunder, succeeded, and then walls and buildings fell. Several 
minars are cracked, but all yet stand, though some of the arched cara- 
vansaries and baths near them are fallen. The old Roman bridge of four 
arches is rent in several places until the water can be seen through it 
from above ; a part o<f the parapet-wall has also been shaken off, and the 
arch above the city door at its east end has been hurled down, and lies 
almost whole. Much damage has been done to houses in the lower part 



300 EARTHQUAKES OF 1832 

of the town, and many of the inhabitants are now to be seen encamping 
in the fields or on the plains." 

Another letter, dated Alexandretta, April 9th, contains the follow- 
ing: 

"I returned to Antioch yesterday, and came to this place, about 
thirty-five miles, to-day. There is little harm done north of Antioch 
compared with the south side of the valley. Alexandretta was shaken, 
but no stones fell. Beylan, in the mountain-pass (Pylae Syriae), is also 
almost injured. The shocks have continued in and around the south of 
Antioch at irregular intervals at from a few minutes to two or three 
hours. The wind has been strong to-day, and I have not observed one, 
but yesterday two or three shocks were strong enough to make the men 
run from the walls of houses which they were pulling down or excavat- 
ing for furniture or goods. One man told me he counted forty-four 
shocks within twenty-four hours after the first one, which I can well 
believe. They were all accompanied by a noise like distant thunder or 
artillery, and produced a tremor of the ground ; but no fresh ruin has, I 
believe, been made by any of them except the first great shock, one man 
describes, not inaptly, as shaking a house just as a horse shakes himself 
in harness when loosed from a journey, and then came a shower of 
stones, falling walls, and roofs. Many of the houses — indeed, nearly all 
around Suadia and around Bitias — have fallen, and large boulders from 
the mountains knocked down some few trees. The house of Dr. Yates, 
used as a mission-school in Suadia, is in ruins, but the inmates were all 
saved. The house of the late Consul Barker is entirely destroyed, the 
man who kept it narrowly escaping with his life. The Protestant Mis- 
sion Chapel at Bitias forms a singular exception; not a stone of it has 
fallen, though the native pastor's house and others around were leveled 
to the ground. 'We are all safe alhamd-u-lillah' (thanks be to God), 
said the pastor, when I inquired for his family. Not so, however, in 
other cases. Some families have lost two or three of their number, and 
several are dead in every village to the south as far as Seleucia." 



EARTHQUAKES OF 1832 301 

At the same time there was a disturbance in Iceland, destroying some 
houses, and the famous Vesuvius, on the night of April 24th, succeeding 
an outpouring of flames and smoke which had lasted for several months, 
poured out a torrent of lava, bursting from the side of the cone, and this 
happened so suddenly as to destroy several adventurous spectators. Vil- 
lages were overwhelmed, and a tract of fertile country desolated. The 
flow lasted several days, and a shower of fine black dust or iron-sand 
fell all about Naples and the adjacent region, causing great annoyance 
to people in the open air, who were almost suffocated by it. The grains 
of sand were quite uniform in size, and would pass through a wire 
gauze, the apertures of which measured the 1 6-1 oooth part of a square 
inch. A shower of stones, attended by an extraordinary quantity of the 
iron-sand, closed up the more striking phenomenon of the eruption. The 
streets of Naples were filled with the dust to the depth of several inches. 
A correspondent of the London Times writes, May 4th, as follows : 

"A short distance before one reaches Resina the road turns sharp 
off to the left in the direction of St. Ivrio, Sebastino, and Massa, where 
the greatest amount of damage has been done. The road was still en- 
cumbered with ashes, and ton-loads were being swept off the roofs. 
Looking right and left over this once fertile tract of land I never saw 
a scene of greater desolation. As far as the eye can search everything is 
withered, and the budding promise of a rich harvest is reduced to what 
I might have taken in my hand and crumbled into dust. Tall trees, pop- 
lars, and cypresses, and mulberry, instead of quivering in the gentle 
breeze are rigid and immovable. Rows of festooned vines, giving hopes 
only last week of an abundant vintage of that delicious wine called 
Lachrymae Christi, seem as if they had been decorated for the tomb — all 
are dead; while underneath, just peeping above the bed of ashes, are 
beans and peas, and all the great variety of vegetables which abound in 
the Naples market, utterly destroyed. The same scene of desolation ex- 
tends all around the mountain, and many thousands who are grateful 
for the preservation of their lives and homes are reduced to absolute 



302 EARTHQUAKES OF 1832 

want. We saw many of these on the road or at the doors of their cot- 
tages, imploring help and declaring now with more than usual truthful- 
ness that they were dying of hunger. Such is the sad spectacle which 
this once rich and lovely district presents as far as the bed of lava which 
cuts off further progress. St. Ivrio, St. Giorgio*, and Cremona, through 
which we passed, have had a narrow escape, indeed. It is a favorite 
place of villeggiatura for the Neapolitans, who have handsome villas 
there, and the lava-stream stopped within half a mile of it. Judge what 
the apprehension of the inhabitants must have been when they saw the 
river of fire coming down upon them and heard the crackling of the 
scoriae as they rolled over and over and looked on the shrubs and trees 
writhing in their agony ! On approaching the lava the peasantry flock 
around us like locusts, each offering his services, and each anxious to 
earn a sou or two. We take a man from Resina, and under his guidance 
we cross the first stream, burning hot to the feet, and still emitting sul- 
phurous cloudlets of smoke. The hot lava,' says our guide, 'is still run- 
ning down slowly underneath/ I take up some pieces, shining with all 
the colors of the rainbow ; but they are too hot to hold, and I throw them 
down. This was the stream which skirted St. Ivrio, and was flowing 
down toward Barra. Standing in the middle, I look up and down seeing 
a mighty sheet covering many acres of rich ground from which smoke 
is still issuing from a hundred — nay, a thousand — fissures. Like huge 
pieces of coke piled one on the other are the component parts of that 
river." 

Stories of eruptions sympathetic with those of the volcanoes of the 
Caribbees were remarkably numerous. There was an extensive and 
fatal outbreak in Guatemala, that was presently toned down by correc- 
tion of first reports. 

A volcano in Mexico, the Colimo, had threatened violence for some 
weeks, and work on a railroad in the neighborhood was stopped. The 
news came by the way of Guadalajara. 

A dispatch from Omaha reported the week after Pelee blew out 



EAKTHQUAKES OF 1832 303 

a sea of fire that, Mount Iona, Nebraska's miniature volcano, had been 
for two days sending up smoke and steam, to the consternation of 
farmers in that part of the state. 

The volcano is situated on the Missouri River, in Cedar county, 
about 150 miles above Omaha, and had been practically dead for thirty 
years. The immediate surrounding country is very rocky and hilly, 
Iona being the highest point in the eastern part of the state. Lewis and 
Clark, in their voyage up the Missouri in the early part of the last cen- 
tury, found the small mountain belching smoke, and reported it as the 
only volcano seen on their trip. The Indians still hold the place in awe 
and will never go near it. It is sacred to them. 

Farmers digging for coal have found the ground hot, and there has 
been evidence of at least an ugly disposition. 

There is a volcano included in the purchase of Alaska, and an agent 
of a commercial company at Unalaska, Aleutian Islands, wrote a letter 
dated April 10, 1902, giving information of volcanic disturbances in 
that portion. The letter says : 

"Unalaska has been shaken by earthquakes lately and on several 
occasions the ground was covered with fine ashes from some volcano. 
Reports reach us from Unimak to the effect that with every westerly 
wind their village is covered with some kind of ashes, indicating that 
some western volcano is in action." 

In the midst of Unalaska Island is situated the celebrated Makushm 
volcano, with an altitude of 5,691 feet. This volcano has had numerous 
periods of activity within the last century, the latest of which was in 

1865. 

Unalaska is the third island from the eastern extremity of the Aleu- 
tian chain. These islands practically form an interrupted extension of 
the Alaska peninsula. Commencing with Unimak Island, which lies 
within five miles of the mainland, the chain extends in a graceful curve 
1,100 miles westward. 

In our Aleutian Archipelago there are 14,610 square miles. The 



304 EARTHQUAKES OF 1832 

largest of the groups is that of the Fox Islands. These islands include 
the famous volcano islands of St. John, the Theologian and the Four 
Craters. The first of these volcanoes has a most singular history, hav- 
ing been thrown up out of the sea during a violent earthquake during 
the month of May, 1796. Its height at that time was estimated at 
barely 100 feet, and the most remarkable feature in connection with its 
creation was its subsequent gradual growth. This ceased in 1823, by 
which time it had attained its present height of 1,500 feet. In appear- 
ance it resembles a great pj-ramid, with deep fissures extending verti- 
cally along its sides. For a period of four years after its appearance 
this strange volcano constantly emitted flames, smoke and steam, and 
in 1806 great volumes of lava gushed from its crater and flowed down 
its sides into the sea. Adjacent to the Fox Islands, on the west, lies the 
Andreanofski group, numbering in all about thirty islands. The group 
is of importance because of its including Burned Island, whereon is sit- 
uated Goreloi volcano, at present in a state of suppressed activity. It is 
the loftiest peak of the Aleutian Archipelago, having an altitude of 
8,000 feet. It represents an immense smoking cone, eighteen miles in 
circumference. 

On May 31 the Colima volcano in Mexico was greatly increasing in 
the activity of its eruptions and serious consequences were feared. Ow- 
ing to the volcano's threatening aspect work on the extension of the 
Mexican Central Railroad between Guadalajara and Manzanillo was 
temporarily suspended. The work on the road had been rapidly pushed, 
and the line had reached within a short distance of Colima, where sev- 
eral difficult engineering obstacles were met, necessitating tunneling and 
scientific bridge building, which will entail such great expense that it 
was deemed advisable to take no chances during the threatening attitude 
of the volcano. 

Since the earthquake disturbances felt at Chilpancingo and Guerro 
the volume of smoke from the crater had increased considerably, and 
loud subterranean noises were heard. Colima has about 1,500 inhabi- 



EARTHQUAKES OF 1832 305 

tants and the people feared that the crater of the volcano might burst 
and bury the city. 

Ever since the eruption of Pelee, Mount Colima had been much af- 
fected. In the early part of May the smoke from the crater greatly 
increased, and for a month almost daily since the mountain convulsions 
increased in force. Some were so violent as to level trees and houses 
on the mountain side. 

Previous to the eruption of Mont Pelee there was an earthquake in 
Guatemala. 

The shock occurred on the evening of April 18 and lasted forty sec- 
onds at San Jose, coming in sections. Buildings rocked and people 
rushed into the streets. No lives were lost at San Jose, but many build- 
ings were cracked. 

At Quesaltanango, fifty miles distant, 500 were reported killed, out 
of a population of 40,000. 

Small earthquakes occurred daily. The city was put under martial 
law. Death and damage was also reported to have resulted in the cities 
of San Marcos, San Pedro, San Juan, Ostancalco, Tacana, Mazatanago 
and Cuyotenango, each having from 10,000 to 15,000 inhabitants. 

At Ocos the vibrations were so violent that the river banks were 
squeezed together, making the stream twenty feet narrower. The loss 
of life was placed at 200. 

In Lachico, a town of 2,000 inhabitants, not a house was left stand- 
ing. 

The way the St. Pierre earthquake appeared in St. Vincent was 
frightful. The sky suddenly blackened until it was as dark as mid- 
night. The sea line drew back 100 feet and then the water rushed in 
again. Hot rain began to fall and then came a shower of small stones, 
some of them as large as walnuts. The stones fell for about fifteen 
minutes. 

The features of the greatest known volcanic eruption in extent, that 
of the Skapta, in Iceland, were these : 



306 EARTHQUAKES OF 1832 

The eruption began in the month of June, having been preceded by 
violent earthquakes. A torrent of lava welled up into the crater, over- 
flowed it, and ran down the sides of the cone into the channel of the 
River Skapta, completely drying it up. The river had occupied a rocky 
gorge, from 400 to 600 feet deep, and averaging 200 feet wide. This 
gorge was filled, a deep lake was filled, and the rock, still at white heat, 
flowed on into subterranean caverns. Tremendous explosions followed, 
throwing bowlders to enormous heights. A week after the first erup- 
tion another stream of lava followed the first, debouched over a preci- 
pice into the channel of another river, and finally, at the end of two 
years, the lava had spread over the plains below in great lakes twelve 
to fifteen miles wide and a hundred feet deep. Twenty villages were 
destroyed by fire, and out of 50,000 inhabitants nearly 9,000 perished, 
either from fire or from noxious vapors. The Skapta River branch of 
this lava stream was fifty miles long and in places twelve to fifteen 
miles wide; the other stream was forty miles long, seven miles broad, 
and the range of depth in each stream was from 100 to 600 feet. Pro- 
fessor BischofT has called this, in quantity, the greatest eruption of the 
world, the lava, piled, having been estimated as of greater volume than 
is Mont Blanc. 

Iceland, as one of the hotbeds of volcanic energy, presents in marked 
manner the ills that come upon a district which suffers from volcanic 
eruptions. Hecla, for instance, has been known to be active for a period 
of six years at a time. While throwing out its vapors, fumes, and sol- 
ids, the people of the island contiguous to the volcano have verged upon 
starvation. Their principal food supply comes from their fisheries and 
from their cattle. As to the fishing, it is practically destroyed because 
of the vast amount of hot lava that is discharged into the sea and be- 
cause of the activity of boiling springs which pour hot water into the 
neighboring ocean. 

As for the cattle, they suffer in a most peculiar manner. The ashes 
and pumice stone are thrown to great heights and settle in great clouds 




^^s-||; ; P*||-|^i| 



"Ui£. if .-,-x: ? .'.' : .-.^;. 




,, ;; J^. :: j/ : ';^& ; ;.^ 



Ifftfefc 



? :' : '- : %,;'- 




Hi 

v - 






Lie 



■■,'".: ^ 

?g«;,... 

1 

m 




ifllill iis«l : : 'PI 




JCND OF LA BOCA PIER AT BEGINNING OF PANAMA CANAL. 



EARTHQUAKES OF 1832 309 

upon the pastures. Aside from this making the grass tasteless, the 
cattle, in trying to eat in pasture, take the ashes and fine pumice into 
their mouths. This cuts the enamel from their teeth, finally leaving the 
brutes in such misery that they cannot eat the grass that is there for 
their sustenance, and they die of slow starvation. On many occasions 
Denmark has been called upon to aid the Icelanders in such emergencies. 



CHAPTER XXI. 

THE BIBLE AND VOLCANOES. 

Holy Writ and Burning Mountains — Passages Pre-figuring the 
End of the World by Fire — Tremendous Foreshadowing 
of Revelations — The Destruction of Sodom and Gomor- 
rah. 

The events of May, 1902, will probably cause many to regard with 
increased directness of belief the Revelations that one day "the heavens 
shall pass away with great noise, and the elements shall melt with fer- 
vent heat. The earth also, and all the works that are therein shall be 
burned up." And the descriptive aptitude of the wonderful revelations 
of Holy Writ will strike all, and startle many readers of the chapters 
of St. John. 

ST. JOHN, REVELATIONS, CHAPTER VI. 

"12. And I beheld when he had opened the sixth seal and lo, there 
was a great earthquake ; and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, 
and the moon became as blood. 

"14. And the heaven departed as a scroll when it is rolled together; 
and every mountain and island were moved out of their places. 

"15. And the kings of the earth, and the great men and the rich 
men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men, and every bond man, 
and every free man hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the 
mountains. 

CHAPTER XVI. 

"8. And the fourth angel poured out his vial upon the sun, and 
power was given unto him to scorch men with fire. 

"17. And the seventh angel poured out his vial into the air; and 

310 



THE BIBLE AND VOLCANOES 311 

there came a great voice out of the temple of heaven, from the throne 
saying, It is done. 

"18. And there were voices and thunders and lightnings, and there 
was a great earthquake such as was not since men were upon the earth, 
so mighty an earthquake and so great. 

"20. And every island fled away and the mountains were not found. 

"21. And there fell upon men a great hail out of heaven, every stone 
about the weight of a talent, and men blasphemed God because of the 
plague of the hail; for the plague thereof was exceeding great. 

CHAPTER IX. 

"1. And the fifth angel sounded, and I saw a star fall from heaven 
unto the earth, and to him was given the key of the bottomless pit. 

"2. And he opened the bottomless pit; and there arose a smoke out 
of the pit, as the smoke of a great furnace ; and the sun and the air were 
darkened by reason of the smoke of the pit. 

CHAPTER VIII. 

"5. And the angel took the censer, and filled it with fire of the altar 
and cast it into the earth, and there were voices, and thunderings, and 
lightnings and an earthquake. 

"7. The first angel sounded, and there followed hail and fire 
mingled with blood, and they were cast upon the earth and the third 
part of trees was burnt up and all green grass was burnt up. 

"8. And the second angel sounded, and as it were a great mountain 
burning with fire was cast into the sea — and the third part of the sea 
became blood. 

CHAPTER XVIII. 

"16. And saying, Alas, alas! that great city, that was clothed in fine 
linen, and purple, and scarlet and decked with gold, and precious stones 
and pearls. 

"19. And they cast dust on their heads and cried weeping and wail- 



312 THE, BIBLE AND VOLCANOES 

ing, saying, Alas, alas ! that great city, wherein were made rich all that 
had ships in the sea by reason of her costliness ! for in one hour is she 
made desolate. 

GENESIS, CHAPTER XIX. 

"i. And there came two angels to Sodom at even, and Lot sat in the 
gate of Sodom, and Lot seeing them rose up to meet them; and he 
bowed himself with his face toward the ground. 

"2. And he said, behold now, my lords, turn in I pray you into 
vour servant's house, and tarrv all night and wash your feet, and ve 
shall rise up early and go on your ways. And they said : Nay, but 
we will abide in the street all night. 

"3. And he pressed upon them greatly; and they turned in onto 
him and entered into his house, and he made them a feast and did bake 
unleavened bread and they did eat. 

"4. But before they lay down, the men of the city, even the men of 
Sodom, compassed the house round, both old and young, all the people 
from every quarter. 

"6. And Lot went out at the door unto them and shut the door after 
him. 

"7. And said, I pray you, brethren, do not so wickedly. 

"9. And they said, Stand back. And they said again : This one 
fellow came in to sojourn and he will needs be a judge. Xow will we 
deal worse with thee than with them. And they pressed sore upon the 
man, even Lot, and came near to break the door. 

"10. But the men put forth their hand and pulled Lot into the 
house to them, and shut to the door. 

"ll. And they smote the men that were at the door of the house 
with blindness, both small and great, so that they wearied themselves 
to find the door. 

"12. And the men said unto Lot, Hast thou here any besides^ 
Son-in-law and thy sons and thy daughters, and whatsoever thou hast 
in the city bring them out of this place. 



THE BIBLE AND VOLCANOES 313 

"13. For we will destroy this place, because the cry of them is 
waxen great before the face of the Lord and the Lord hath sent us to 
destroy it. 

"14. And Lot went out, and spake unto his sons-in-law which mar- 
ried his daughters and said : Up, get you out of this place, for the 
Lord will destroy this city ; but he seemed as one that mocked unto his 
sons-in-law. 

"15. And when the morning arose, then the angels hastened Lot, 
saying: Arise, take thy wife and thy two daughters, which are here 
lest thou be consumed in the iniquity of the city. 

"16. And while he lingered, the men laid hold upon his hand and 
upon the hand of his wife, and upon the hand of his two daughters, the 
Lord being merciful unto him, and they brought him forth and set him 
without the city. 

"17. And it came to pass when they had brought them forth abroad 
that he said : Escape for thy life, look not behind thee neither stay thou 
in all the plain : escape to the mountain, lest thou be consumed. 

"24. Then the Lord rained upon Sodom and upon Gomorrah brim- 
stone and fire from the Lord out of heaven. 

"25. And he overthrew those cities, and all the plain, and all the 
inhabitants of the cities, and that which grew upon the ground. 

" 26. But his wife looked back from behind him and she became a 
pillar of salt. 

"27. And Abraham got up early in the morning to the place where 
he stood before the Lord. 

"28. And he looked toward Sodom and Gomorrah and toward all 
the land of the plain, and beheld and lo, the smoke of the country went 
up as the smoke of a furnace." 

The scientists who believe in the literal interpretation of the lan- 
guage of narratives in the Bible, point out that the conversion of Lot's 
wife into a pillar of salt is a fete of chemistry. Lnder such circum- 
stances, not without possibility and probability, because the eruption of 



314 THE BIBLE AND VOLCANOES 

volcanoes, as a rule, develop an enormous quantity of salt, so that the 
phrase is, of the desolation of the earth, that it is "sown with salt." 
The victims of St. Pierre suffocated by a fiery gas were largely burned, 
lava following salted and scalding mud. It is very literally true that 
fire and brimstone and salt go together in volcanic eruptions. 

C. B. Pitman, seismologist, says as a scientist: 

"The earthquake which destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah is not only 
one of the oldest upon record, but one of the most remarkable. It was 
accompanied by a volcanic eruption, it upheaved a district of several 
hundred square leagues, and caused the subsidence of a tract of land 
not less extensive, altering the whole water system and the levels of 
the soil. 

"The south of Palestine contained a splendid valley dotted with 
forest and flourishing cities. This was the valley of Siddim in which 
reigned the confederate sovereigns of Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, Ze- 
boiim and Zoar. They had joined forces to resist the attack of the 
King of the Elamites, and they had just lost the decisive battle of the 
campaign when the catastrophe which destroyed the five cities and spread 
desolation in the flourishing valley took place. 

"As the sun arose, the ground trembled and opened, red hot stones 
and burning cinders, which fell like a storm of fire upon the surround- 
ing country, being emitted from the yawning chasm. 

"In a few words the Bible relates the dread event : 'The Lord 
rained upon Sodom and upon Gomorrah brimstone and fire from the 
Lord out of heaven, and He overthrew those cities, and all the plain, 
and all the inhabitants of the cities, and that which grew upon the 
ground. And Abraham gat up early in the morning to the place where 
he stood before the Lord, and he looked towards Sodom and Gomorrah, 
and towards all the land of the plain, and behold, and lo, the smoke 
of the country went up as the smoke of a furnace.' 

"Nothing could be more succinct or terse than this description of 
the catastrophe. 



THE BIBLE AND VOLCANOES 315 

--The episode of Lot's wife being turned into a pillar of salt quite 
harmonizes with the event thus described, for of all of the substances gen- 
erated in the volcanic furnaces none is met with in such large quan- 
tities as salt. The moist and burning cinders which shoot forth like a 
shower of fire from the burning craters are strongly impregnated with 
this substance, which, after the water in the cinders has evaporated, 
forms a thick deposit around the volcanoes." 



CHAPTER XXII. 

QUAKES IN THE MEDITERRANEAN. 

Numerous Peaks in the Form of Islands that have Quaked in 
Imitation of the Giant Vesuvius — Shocks that were De- 
structive,, AND OTHERS THAT HAD IN THEM THE FLAVOR OF 

Danger. 

The first Greek colonists which settled in the Island of Ischia were 
obliged to abandon it, so frequent were the earthquakes which overthrew 
their temples and their towns and kept the population in a constant 
state of alarm. But the island is so beautiful and attractive that fresh 
colonies took the place of those which had migrated to Cumae. In 
short, Ischia, which so many poets have celebrated, is one of the most 
charming and seductive spots in Europe. The dormant volcano, which 
formerly lit up the whole island with its fires, and which now, during 
its sleep, and, like a man dreaming, occasionally shakes it violently, 
gives a wonderful activity to vegetation. There is a profusion of vines, 
rose, lemon, orange trees, mulberry trees, cotton plants, myrtles, and 
laurel. Milk, herbs, and fruit are all of the best quality. The whole 
country is one vast garden spread out at the foot and along the slopes 
of the giant which warns it, and makes Ischia more fertile than any 
other island in the Mediterranean. The underground fire also imparts 
special value to the thermal springs, and raises their temperature to 178 
degrees Fahrenheit. The sky of Ischia is nearly always blue, and the air 
as pure in summer as in winter. All this makes the island a delightful 
place of sojourn, and there is not a spa in Europe where the time passes 
more agreeably. 

Since the last eruption of Mount Epomeo, in 1302, earthquakes be- 
come more and more rare, though in 1827 a shock destroyed part of 

316 



QUAKES IN THE MEDITERRANEAN 817 

Casamicciola and Lacco-Ameno, while again in 1881 and 1883 part of 
the island was severely shaken. 

The earthquake of March 4, 1881, had some very distressing conse- 
quences. There were two shocks that day, the first at half-past one, 
which lasted seven seconds ; the second, at two o'clock, which lasted only 
half that time. A third shock even was felt three days afterward, on 
Monday, the 7th. 

A great part of the town of Casamicciola was destroyed, and there 
were 126 persons killed and 177 injured, while 700 houses fell in. The 
catastrophe was at first attributed to an eruption of Vesuvius, which 
took place the day before ; but Professors Palmieri, of Naples, and Ora- 
zio Sylvestre, of Catania, gave it as their opinion that the shock must 
have been caused by some local phenomenon, perhaps by the falling of 
some underground galleries constantly sapped by the action of the min- 
eral waters, and Palmieri pointed out that a few minutes before the first 
shock the waters of the thermal springs had been in a state of ebullition. 

The shock of July 28, 1883, was far more fatal in its consequences, 
first, because the season was at its height, and visitors were very numer- 
ous ; secondly, because the earthquake, which was in the same direction 
as the previous one (viz., toward the sea), instead of lasting seven sec- 
onds, lasted fifteen, or even thirty according to John Lavis; and finally 
because it occurred, not in the day-time, but at 9 -30 o'clock in the 
evening. 

The island was wrapped in dark clouds, the sea was very much agi- 
tated all round the island; everything seemed to indicate that Ischia 
was about to collapse into the waters, and a sort of quiver caused the 
ground to tremble, when a violent shock of earthquake, accompanied 
by a terrible noise, was felt. The population, in terror, fled from their 
houses, uttering cries of terror, looking for one another in the dark, 
and making for the shore as in the last days of Pompeii. There was a 
general scramble for the fisherman's boats, and a scene of terrible con- 
fusion, everyone seeking to save himself. 



318 QUAKES IN THE MEDITERRANEAN 

All parts of the island were disturbed, but while Ischia suffered lit- 
tle, Florio and Lacco-Ameno were almost entirely destroyed. Nowhere, 
however, was the disaster so terrible as in the charming little town of 
Casamicciola, situated at the foot of Mount Epomeo, the thermal 
springs of which are so frequented. This town, with its rows of ele- 
gant villas, completely disappeared, only five houses being left standing; 
and as 1,800 visitors were there in addition to the 4,000 regular inhab- 
itants, some idea may be formed as to the number of victims. 

At Lacco-Ameno not a single building emerged from the mass of 
rafters and stones which, after the shock, marked the site of this once 
flourishing little place. Out of the 1,593 inhabitants it is believed that 
only five escaped. The ruin was complete, and many houses had dis- 
appeared altogether, the supposition being that they were swallowed up 
in the yawning earth. 

The terrestrial shock appears to have traversed the island from west 
to east, and all the villages and hamlets in its course seem to have suf- 
fered, in addition to those already mentioned. 

The first shock was between 9:30 and 10 at night. Several of the 
survivors state that the approach of the catastrophe was heralded by a 
gruff, alarming rolling noise, which suddenly gave place to a most ter- 
rific sound like the discharges of a large battery of artillery all of whose 
guns were firing off at once. Immediately afterward the houses oscil- 
lated like a sloop rocked by an angry sea, and, under the influence of 
the shock, crumbled to pieces. A few of the inhabitants, but only a 
few, had time to get into the street before the houses fell in, but the 
great majority were buried beneath the ruins. 

For a space of fifteen seconds the surface of the ground was agitated 
in all directions, and many people were flying in terror toward the 
shore, when they were struck down and buried beneath the mass of 
falling debris. When the shock was over the only sounds to be heard 
were the cries of terror and anguish from the injured. Not a single 
light was left burning, and a dense cloud of dust, which blinded and 



QUAKES IN THE MEDITEKRANEAN 319 

suffocated the survivors, overhung the scene of the disaster, while the 
poignancy of the situation was increased by the fact that the houses 
which had only partially fallen in continued to collapse and make fresh 
victims. No relief was forthcoming for several hours, as those who 
escaped the disaster were in too great a state of terror to be of any serv- 
ice to others, while, when they had regained possession of themselves, 
the material means of relief were all wanting. 

At the time of the catastrophe the small theater of Casamicciola 
was full, but owing to the lightness of its construction, most of the 
audience, though more or less injured, were able to extricate themselves 
from the debris and make their escape when the shock was over. But 
the panic was a terrible one, and some of the spectators were killed by 
the fall of beams or suffocated by the violence of the current of outer 
air. All through the night were heard the cries and groans of the un- 
fortunate victims half buried beneath the ruins; and these issued not 
only from the vicinity of the theater, but from the houses of the square, 
which had become tombs for their still living inhabitants. 

A visitor who was in the theater at the time of the shock says that 
he heard a sound like thunder, but it was not until the first oscillations 
were felt that any symptoms of alarm were shown. "At first," says 
this eye-witness, "not a cry was uttered, though terror was depicted 
upon every countenance; but when the first shock was followed by sev- 
eral others, a shriek of despair went up from every lip. The lights went 
out, pieces of timber were falling all about us, and the cries of terror 
were succeeded by shrieks of pain from those who had been injured. 
It was, indeed, a trying moment. When the shocks ceased I crawled, 
like many others, out of the ruined building in order to reach shore. 
The dust was literally blinding. Several times I stumbled over heaps 
of masonry and rubbish from which heartrending groans and shrieks 
were proceeding. Upon the shore I encountered many others as fright- 
ened as myself, and endeavoring to escape in fear of there being more 
shocks. Seeing that all remained quiet we retraced our steps in order 



320 QUAKES IN THE MEDITERRANEAN 

to relieve the injured. But it was not until the morning, upon the 
arrival of the authorities and of the troops sent from Naples, that it 
was possible to take any effective steps for surmounting the difficulties 
by which we were surrounded. The firemen, assisted by volunteers, 
then set to work energetically to clear away the rubbish, laying the dead 
bodies in a row and handing over the injured to the doctors. It was 
necessary, however, to go to work very carefully, so as not to injure 
those who were still unhurt; and so the work proceeded very slowly, 
during which time we felt our heart-strings torn by the piteous appeals 
for relief. Some people were covered by so much debris that it took 
hours to reach them, and when we did so, some of them had succumbed 
to their injuries, while others had gone out of their minds. The dense 
cloud of dust had choked many of those who had not been killed on the 
spot. The troops arrived later in the morning, and I then returned to 
Naples." Commander Enrico Boltini, professor of surgery in the Uni- 
versity of Pavia, had a marvelous escape. The professor, who was a 
widower, had gone for a holiday to Ischia with his child and its gov- 
erness, and he had arranged to start the day before the catastrophe, but 
having met one of his friends in the island, he determined to stay a few r 
days more. 

On Friday evening, his child, as they passed the theater, asked to 
be taken in ; the professor said that he could not do so that evening, but 
w T ould the next day. The father and child were seated in the theater, 
and it so happened that the title of the piece being played was "An 
Earthquake." Therefore, when Pulchinello exclaimed in terror, "Un 
terremoto! un terremoto ! Alia mare! alia mare!" (An earthquake! an 
earthquake! To the sea! to the sea!) the spectators of the play thought 
at first that this was part of the comedy. They were soon undeceived, 
as the petroleum lamps were upset and all was darkness. At this criti- 
cal juncture the professor had the sangfroid to take note of the hour 
(9:32) and to sit perfectly still, clasping the child in his arms, though 
all the people in the theater were seeking escape. 



QUAKES IN THE MEDITERRANEAN 321 

The shock had been accompanied by an appalling roar like the dis- 
charge of several big guns at the same time, and it was followed by a 
profound silence and a storm of dust raised by the falling buildings. 
Large crevices appeared, one of them at the place where Professor Bol- 
tini was crouching. Soon after he heard in the distance groans, fol- 
lowed by the sound of footsteps, this being probably the march of the 
carbineers from Ischia. Owing to his ignorance of the locality and the 
darkness he was obliged to remain where he was till daybreak, and 
when he prepared to make a move he was thunderstruck. He could 
not see a sign of the square which he had crossed the evening before on 
his way to the theater. There was a mass of ruins, and that was all. 
The first squads of relief from Naples arrived before 6 A. M. 

Out of the twenty-seven persons with whom he had dined at the 
hotel the evening before he could not find one. The actor who had 
played the part of Pulchinello and given alarm, was taken to Naples, 
badly injured, in the dress which he had worn upon the stage. 

Another survivor, Signor Giovanna Casini, of Arezzo, who also was 
at the theater when the catastrophe occurred, gives the following de- 
scription of the scene : 

"It was about a quarter after nine when one of my friends sug- 
gested that we should go to the theater. The curtain rose at half-past 
nine, but we had only heard a few words of the comedy when we heard 
a terrible shock. I was thrown forward several feet and fell down full 
length. With this there was a deafening noise, such as might be 
caused by a heavy train passing over an iron bridge at full speed; dur- 
ing the shock the ground upheaved and then subsided, like the waves of 
the sea during a storm. 

"I cannot well describe what followed, for the whole occurrence was 
like a horrible nightmare. All I remember is that we were a mass of 
human beings huddled together; that the petroleum lamps in their fall 
set fire to the seats ; and that, trying to extinguish the conflagration we 
all rushed violently into the open. I also remember that upon looking up 



322 QUAKES IN THE MEDITERRANEAN 

to a tree I saw that the branches were covered with human beings who 
had climbed up there. 

"Pieces of wood were piled upon the seashore and set alight as a 
signal for help. I saw around me a mass of women and old people of 
both sexes with nothing on but night-dresses, while many of the chil- 
dren were quite naked. Other women, only half dressed, were rushing 
about like furies with torches in their hands, looking for their children 
or husband, and imploring others to aid them in the search." 

Nearly all the survivors were stupefied by grief or terror and few 
were able to give an intelligible reply to the questions put to them. 
Among the crowd of fugitives was the engineer. Serahno Tarantini, 
who said that at the Hotel Sauvet, where he was lodging, three rooms 
had fallen in. He was playing cards at the time, and although the 
lamps went out he managed to find his way into the garden. The dark- 
ness was so intense that he dared not move till daybreak, and then he 
was a long time making his way to the shore, as there was great danger 
not only of falling into some crevice, but of stepping upon the unfor- 
tunate people buried beneath the ruins. From beneath the ruins ex- 
tended limbs of human bodies in the convulsions of death, an arm. a 
leg, or a shoulder sticking here and there all the way. 

He endeavored to save a few people, but he could not do much, 
though he did manage to extricate two children. All night long he had 
heard, amid the lugubrious cries of the whole town, a persistent groan- 
ing, and a woman's voice exclaiming: "My children, my children!" 
At daybreak he saw her standing upon a fragment of the terrace, which 
had not been carried away, with nothing but her shift on, and still re- 
peating the piteous cry of "My children, my children!" Signor Taran- 
tini says that he was wondering what he could say to her in the way of 
consolation when he saw two children playing quietly among the ruins. 
which might at any moment fall in and crush them, and it so happened 
that these were hers. 

Not less touching, and more tragic in its ending, is another scene 



QUAKES IN THE MEDITERRANEAN 



29! 



described by him. As he proceeded on his way he saw a woman's 
broken shoulder, and a gloved hand with many rings on it, emerging 
from the ruins. This woman was back to back with her husband, who, 
speaking from the ruins which quite covered him, exclaimed in piteous 
tones: "Save her, never mind about me." Signor Tarantini, on draw- 
ing closer, recognized in her a handsome Egyptian lady who lived oppo- 
site his hotel, and he put out his hand to her, and tried to raise the 
stones which held her prisoner, when a landslip occurred and rendered 
all his efforts useless. At the Hotel Picciola Sentinella, where the poet 
Longfellow resided for some time, an English lady. Miss Robertson, 
was playing Chopin's Funeral March to several friends, and after the 
disaster the corpse of this lady and her mother, together with those of 
eight Swiss, all of one family, were found beneath the ruins. Miss 
Robertson was found seated in front of the piano with her legs crossed, 
and might, to all appearance, have been playing still. Death must in her 
case have been instantaneous. It appears, strangely enough, that the 
playing of Chopin's Funeral March saved the life of one of the residents 
of the hotel, as Count Capella, when he heard the march being played, 
went out, exclaiming: "I cannot stand such music!" He had scarcelv 
crossed the threshold when the building fell in behind him. 



CHAPTER XXIII. 

THE PRECEDENT OF VESUVIUS. 

Eruptions Before A. D. 79 — The Mountain Transformed by 
the "Pliny Eruption" — The Resurrection of Pompeii 

and herculaneum after seventeen centuries macau- 

lay and Byron's Poetry — Pliny, the Younger's, Special 
Correspondence. 

Oh! land to Mem'ry and to freedom dear, 
Land of the melting lyre and conquering spear, 
Land of the vine-clad hill, the fragrant grove, 
Of art and arms, of Genius and Love, 
Hear, fairest Italy. 

The leaves scarce rustled in the sighing breeze; 
In azure dimples curled the sparkling seas, 
And, as the golden tide of light they quafFd, 
Campania's sunny meads and vineyards laugh'd, 
While gleamed each lichen'd oak and giant pine, 
On the far sides of swarthy Apennine. 

Saw ye how wild, how red, how broad a light 
Burst on the darkness of that mid-day night, 
As fierce Vesuvius scatter'd o'er the vale, 
His drifted flames and sheets of burning hail, 
Shook hell's wan lightnings from his blazing cone, 
And gilded heaven with meteors not its own? 

—Macaulay's "Pompeii." 

LETTERS OF PLINY THE YOUNGER. 

Containing an Account of the Eruption of A. D. 79. 

"A friend of my uncle's, who was lately come from Spain on pur- 
pose to see him, finding my mother and me sitting thus together, and 

324 



■■■•■■■■■:# 




PANAMA CANAL, 3 MILES FROM THE ATLANTIC. 




PANAMA CANAL. 9 MILES FROM COLO! 



THE PRECEDENT OF VESUVIUS 327 

taking notice that I was reading, reproved the patience of her temper 
and the indifference of mine. It was now 6 o'clock in the morning, 
yet there was but a faint and glimmering light. The house shook vio- 
lently ; and though we were in an open court, yet, as it was very narrow 
and built almost all round, we were certainly in great danger. We 
then thought it expedient to leave the town; the people, distracted with 
fears, followed us, and (such is the nature of fear which embraces, as 
most prudential any other dictate in preference to its own) they 
pressed upon us and drove forward. When we were out of reach of 
the buildings we stopped; our astonishment was great, nor were our 
apprehensions less, for the carriages which we had ordered out of the 
town were so violently shaken from side to side, although upon plain 
ground, that they could not be kept in their .places even when propped 
by heavy stones. The sea, too, seemed to be forced back upon itself, 
repelled as it were by the strong concussions of the earth. It is certain 
that the shore was greatly widened, and many sea-animals were left 
upon the strand. 

"On the land side a dark and horrible cloud, charged with combus- 
tible matter, suddenly broke and shot forth a long trail of fire, in the 
nature of lightning, but in larger flashes. Then, my uncle's friend, the 
same who came out of Spain, said to us, with great vehemence and 
eagerness, Tf your brother and your uncle be still living, his wishes 
are employed for safety. If he has lost his life, he was desirous yours 
might be saved. Why then will you not immediately leave this place?' 
We answered that we were not so solicitous for our own as for my 
uncle's preservation. He then hastily withdrew, running with the ut- 
most expedition from danger. Not long after, the cloud descending 
covered the whole bay, and we could no longer see the Island of Caprea 
or the promontory of Misenum. My mother now began to beseech, ad- 
vise, and command me to make my escape in any manner I could. She 
observed that as I was young I might easily take flight; but that she, 
who was older in years and less active, could patiently resign herself 



328 THE PRECEDENT OF VESUVIUS 

to death, in case she was not the occasion of my destruction. My 
answer was, 'I will never attempt at safety if we are not together.' And 
then, leading her by the hand, I assisted her to go faster; she yielded 
with regret, still angry with herself for delaying me. 

''The ashes now fell upon us; however, in no great quantities. I 
looked back. A thick vapor just behind us rolled along the ground 
like a torrent, and followed us. I then said, 'Let us turn out of this 
road, whilst we can see our way, lest the people who crowd after us 
trample us to death.' We had scarce considered what was to be done 
when we were surrounded with darkness, not like the darkness of a 
cloudy night or when the moon disappears, but such as it is in a close 
room when all light is excluded. You might have heard the shrieks of 
women, the moans of infants, and the outcries of men. Some were 
calling for their parents, some for their children, some for their wives : 
their voices only made them known to each other. Some bewailed 
their own fate, others the fate of their relations. There were some 
who, even from a fear of death, prayed to die. Many paid their adora- 
tions to the gods; but the greater number were of opinion that the 
gods no longer existed, and that this night was the final and eternal 
period of the world. There were others who magnified the real dan- 
gers by imaginary and false terrors. Some affirmed that Misenum 
was burnt to the ground. The report, although not true, gained credit. 

"A little gleam of light now appeared. It was not daylight, but a 
forewarning of the approach of some fiery vapor — which, however, 
discharged itself at a distance from us. Darkness immediately suc- 
ceeded. Then ashes poured down upon us in large quantities, and 
heavy, which obliged us frequently to rise and brush them off, other- 
wise we had been smothered or pressed to death by their weight, 

"I might boast that not one sigh or timorous word broke from me 
through all this distress, had I not fortified myself with one great 
consolation — a miserable one indeed — that all nature was perishing with 
me. 



THE PRECEDENT OF VESUVIUS 329 

"At last this darkness, which now was drawn into the thinness of a 
cloud or of smoke, went off; true day appeared. The sun shone forth, 
but pale, as at the time of an eclipse. All objects that offered them- 
selves to our sight (which was yet so weak that we could scarce bear 
the return of light) were changed, and covered with ashes as thick 
as snow. At our return to Misenum, after having refreshed ourselves, 
we remained in that suspense and doubt of mind which hope and fear 
inspire : fear indeed was most prevalent, for the earthquake still con- 
tinued, and several enthusiasts, by dreadful prophecies, increased their 
own fears and the fears of others. 

"Though it was now morning, the light was exceedingly faint and 
languid, the buildings all around us tottered, and though we stood 
upon open ground, yet, as the place was narrow and confined there 
was no remaining there without certain and great danger; we there- 
fore resolved to quit the town. The people followed us in the utmost 
consternation, and, as to a mind distracted with terror, every suggestion 
seems more prudent than its own, pressed in great crowds about us in 
our way out. Being both at a convenient distance from the houses, 
we stood still in the midst of a most dangerous and dreadful scene." 

This description by the younger Pliny of the scenes in which his 
uncle, the elder, perished, are as accurately descriptive of the terrors 
of the eruptions in Martinique aad St. Vincent, in the May days of 1902, 
as of the original catastrophe. 

Dr. Home is authority that the panic-stricken crowd, as it left the 
theater, turned to fly. Some, anticipating a second earthquake, 
hastened to their homes to load themselves with their more costly goods 
and escape whilst it was yet time; others, dreading the shower of ashes, 
that now fell fast, torrent upon torrent over the streets, rushed under 
the roofs of the nearest houses, or temples, or sheds — shelter of any 
kind — for protection from the terrors of the open air. But darker and 
larger and mightier spread the cloud above them. It was a sudden and 
more ghastly Night rushing upon the realm of noon ! "Each sex prob- 



330 THE PRECEDENT OF VESUVIUS 

ably acted in conformity to its character, the men trusting to their own 
strength to escape, the women waiting with patience the issue of a 
danger from which their own exertions could not save them," 

The best accounts of the calamity are those two well-known letters 
written by the younger Pliny, the first of which relates to the death 
of his uncle, the elder Pliny, the great historian and naturalist, whilst 
the second letter describes the flight of his mother and himself from 
Pompeii. 

RE-DISCOVERY OF POMPEII AND HERCULANEUM. 

Temple and tower went down and left a site 

Chaos of ruins ! Who shall trace the void, 

Over the dim fragments cast a lunar light, 

And say, "Here was, or is," where all is doubly night?" 

Stumbling o'er recollections, now we clap 
Our hands, and say, "Eureka !" it is clear. 

— Byron. 
Not the silence of solitude and repose, but of death and devastation 
— the silence of a great city without an inhabitant. 

I stood within the city disinterred 
And heard the autumnal leaves, Jike light footfalls 
Of spirits passing through the streets, and heard 
The mountain's slumbering voice at intervals 
Thrill through those roofless halls. 

The discovery of Pompeii dates from 1595, when by order of the 
Count of Sarno an aqueduct was made to convey the waters of the 
upper Sarno to the town of Torradell Annunciata. The testimony of 
the character of the Vesuvian devastation remained undisturbed for six- 
teen centuries. It was in 1728 that the great work of excavation was 
made and Pompeii was disinterred, "all vivid with its undimmed colors 
and its exquisite designs, with every line unfaded in the rich mosaic 



THE PRECEDENT OF VESUVIUS 331 

of its floors — in its gardens the sacrificial tripod; in its halls the chest of 
treasure; in its baths the stigel; in its saloons the furniture and the lamp; 
in the triclinia the fragments of the last feast; in its cubicula the per- 
fumes and the rouge of faded beauty : and everywhere the bones and 
skeletons of those who once moved the springs of that minute, yet 
gorgeous machine of luxury and life." 

" Beauteous in ruin, in decay sublime, 

A splendid trophy o'er the wreck of Time." 

The old question whether the date of the eruption was August 23d or 
November 5th was settled upon the following evidence : 

During the explorations dried grapes were found, and it is certain 
that they would not be dried so early in August. Walnuts, too, are not 
gathered so early in the year as August, and many were found during 
the excavations. But perhaps the most convincing proof is that in many 
of the gardens the amphorae, or wine- jars, were found upside down, 
having evidently been washed out in order to receive the new wine. 

It is certain that the eruption of November 5th, 79, wonderfully 
changed the appearance of Vesuvius, and the transformation was fixed 
in memory by the monumental character of the mountain. The morn- 
ing of the day was thus poetically described : "All was bright and 
joyous. The shops were filled with their usual wares, and crowded by 
intending purchasers; Campanian peasants stood in the streets with 
baskets of fruits and flowers; the slaves drew water at the fountains; 
the gambler rattled his dice ; the drunkard quaffed his wine ; in the public 
places gathered the chariots of the wealthy, the priest sacrificed at the 
altar, the merchant trafficked in the forum, and in the crowded theater 
men and women gathered with wolfish eyes to watch the struggles of 
the athlete and the gladiator in the bloody arena." 

The signal that a great eruption of Vesuvius was on was the appear- 
ance on the crest of the mountain which resembled a gigantic goblet, a 
column of thick black smoke that assumed the shape of a pine tree, the 



332 THE PEECEDENT OF VESUVIUS 

trunk black, the branches fire. When the pine tree cloud and darts of 
flame reached an enormous height, it became a vast, widespread cloud, 
and the fall of ashes began and continued until the cities were buried. 

Saw ye how wild, how red, how broad a light 
Burst on the darkness of that mid-day night 
As fierce Vesuvius scattered o'er the vale 
His drifted flames and sheets of burning hail, 
Shook hell's wan lightnings from his blazing cone, 
And gilded heaven with meteors not its own? 

The eruption of Mont Pelee, 1902, was of remarkable likeness to that 
of Vesuvius, in 79. The remarkable outbreak of Vesuvius was Novem- 
ber 5th — that of Pelee May 8th. It has been said with as great con- 
stancy as carelessness that Vesuvius was unknown as a volcano before 
the destruction by burial in ashes and lava of Pompeii and Herculaneum. 
Senaca records that an earthquake sixteen years before the famous 
Vesuvian outbreak, threw down a great part of Pompeii and consider- 
ably devastated Herculaneum. John Fletcher Home, M. D., D. S. C, 
says of Vesuvius': 

"The mountain is a link in the historical chain which binds us to the 
past, which takes us back to the 'palmy days' of the Roman Empire. 
Before the days of Titus it seems to have been unknown as a volcano, 
and its summit is supposed to have been crowned by a temple of Jupiter. 

"Strapo, eminent historian though he was, was no prophet. The 
subsequent history of Vesuvius has shown that at varying periods the 
mountain has burst forth into great eruptive activity. Respecting the 
volcanic system of Southern Europe, it may be observed that there is a 
central tract where the most violent earthquakes take place, of which 
Mount Vesuvius may be considered the center." 

It is the story of Seneca that in the year 63, the whole region about 
Vesuvius was seriously disturbed, and even in Naples a very great 
number of houses were shattered. De Home remarks : "It is not sur- 



THE PRECEDENT OF VESUVIUS 333 

prising, therefore, that we should find amongst the ruins numerous indi- 
cations that the cities were undergoing extensive restorations." 

This passage from Bulwer's closing chapter of the "Last Days of 
Pompeii" is so much like some grand passages describing the eruptions 
of Pelee and the Soufriere, especially the former, that one wonders 
whether there is some unconscious appropriation from tenacious mem- 
ories : 

"Bright and gigantic through the darkness which closed around it, 
like the walls of hell, the mountain shone — a pile of fire. The summit 
seemed riven in two, or above the surface there seemed to rise two 
monster shapes, each confronting each, as demons contending for a 
world. These were of one deep blood-red hue of fire, which lighted up 
the whole atmosphere, far and wide, but below the nether part of the 
mountain was still dark and shrouded, save in three places, adown which 
flamed serpentine and irregular rivers of the molten lava. 

"Darkly red through the profound gloom of their banks they flowed 
slowly on as toward the devoted city. Over the broadest there seemed to 
spring a cragged and stupendous arch, from which, as from the jaws of 
hell, gushed the source of sudden disasters, and through the stilled air 
was heard the rattling of the fragments of rock, hurtling one upon 
another as they were borne down the fiery cataracts — darkening for one 
instant the spot where they fell, and suffused the next in the burnished 
hues of the flood along which they floated. 

"Glaucus turned in gratitude and caught lone once more in his arms 
and fled along the street, that was yet intensely luminous. But suddenly 
a duller shade fell over the air. Instinctively he turned to the mountain, 
and, behold! one of the two gigantic crests into which the summit had 
been divided rocked and wavered to and fro, and then with a sound, the 
mightiness of which no language can describe, it fell from its burning 
base and rushed, an avalanche of fire, down the side of the mountain. At 
the same instant gushed forth a volume of blackest smoke, rolling on 
over air, sea and earth. Another, and another, and another shower of 



334 THE PRECEDENT OF VESUVIUS 

ashes, far more profuse than before, scattered fresh desolation along the 
streets. Darkness once more wrapped them as a veil." 

Vesuvius has the reputation of being the most picturesque of moun- 
tains, and there is a literature relating to the various eruptions, and no 
other volcanic displays have been so brilliantly written of. The fol- 
lowing relates to a display of more than a century ago : 

Aug. 22, 1793. — "There was to-day a most singular appearance in 
the mountain; on opening the shutters to view it I perceived the crater 
to be in great agitation, puff after puff impelling each other with the 
greatest violence. I could perceive thousands of stones and scoriae 
thrown into the air, and falling in all directions. The clouds from the 
crater were as white as the purest snow ; on a sudden, as I was looking 
up at these, a column of smoke rushed impetuously out of another mouth 
behind the crater, as black as the deepest ink; and rising in curling vol- 
umes to a vast magnitude, formed a pillar perfectly unconnected with 
the smoke from the crater, and presented a striking contrast by opposing 
its jet black to the snowy whiteness of the other. These appearances 
continued at intervals the whole day. Sometimes the two columns of 
different colors rose together, as if in emulation of each other, and striv- 
ing which should rise the highest and display the greatest magnitude, 
but never mixing or interfering with each other." 

Aug. 30. — "The lava which was last night so great, this evening 
suddenly stopped; hardly a trace of it was visible. But the crater dis- 
played such girandoles of fire, such beautiful columns of light red flame, 
as I think I never saw before. Millions of red-hot stones were shot 
into the air, full half of the cone itself, and then bending fell all around 
in a fine arch. As soon as I got home I fixed the telescope. Sometimes 
in the middle of the clear flame another and another still more bright 
and glorious displayed itself, breaking on the eye like the full sun; so 
that the interior was always the most luminous. The interior and 
bright attendants upon the principal column seemed to be lava in per- 
fect fusion, which boiled and bubbled up above the crater's edge; and 






THE PRECEDENT OF VESUVIUS 335 

sometimes falling over it, I could perceive splash upon the cone, and 
take its course gently down the mountain. Sometimes, and more usu- 
ally, it fell again into the crater. I write this with the burning moun- 
tain now before my eyes. All the top of the cone is covered with red- 
hot stones and lava. The flame of the crater continues without inter- 
vals of darkness, as usual. It is always in flame, or rather the clouds 
of smoke, tinged with the boiling matter within, are like burnished gold, 
and as bright as fire." 

Sept. 5. — "Vesuvius continues to throw most superbly; the lava 
flows again; at sunset he shewed that Tyrian hue which he assumes 
sometimes, and which has a glow beyond description." 



CHAPTER XXIV. 

THE PHENOMENA OF VESUVIUS. 

The Most Famous of Fiery Mountains — Remarkable in Its 
Eruptions — Memorably Historic in Its Surroundings — 
The Story of This Mountain as Related by the Most Dar- 
ing, Studious, Intelligent and Constant of Its Observers. 

The most interesting mountains in the world, in their association with 
history for thousands of years, are those of southern Italy. Vesuvius is 
in many ways the most conspicuous of them in its location, the most pic- 
turesque in its appearance, and the most venerable in its records. We 
may speak of it confidently as the most memorable of mountains. Next 
to Vesuvius is Mount Etna, famous for terrible outbreaks at long inter- 
vals, and ranking, aside from its volcanic action, as one of the noblest of 
all the mountains, strangely interesting in its situation, of enormous bulk, 
in great part covered with magnificent forests, penetrated by immense 
caverns, some of which are storehouses of ice and never-melting snows, 
and it is the loftiest of landmarks in that portion of the world, exceeding 
in perpendicular height three miles. 

Vesuvius surpasses Etna far in the general interest the world takes in 
it. It is the most historic of volcanoes, and has been the subject of inter- 
ested and enlightened observation all the time that the memories of man 
have been recorded. Its eruptions have been closely followed in many 
respects by those in the West Indies, the startling features of which for 
many years after the eruptions of May, 1902, will uncommonly concern 
the people of all nations. 

The historian of Vesuvius to whom we are most indebted — unless, 
possibly, the younger Pliny be an exception — is the Hon. Sir William 
Hamilton, K. B., F. R. S., British Envoy Extraordinary and Plenipoten- 

336 



PHENOMENA OF VESUVIUS 337 

tiary at the Court of Naples, who, during his long residence in that city 
in a very influential official capacity, dwelt in sight of Vesuvius and was 
fascinated by the wonderful picture before his eyes.* The world is 
indebted to him for "Observations on Mount Vesuvius, Mount Etna and 
Other Volcanoes, in a Series of Letters Addressed to the Royal Soci- 
ety." He added to his letters as originally written many explanatory 
notes. Sir William's book was printed for T. Cadell, in the Strand, 1773. 
Mr. Cadell says, as editor of the letters of Sir William, that having men- 
tioned to Sir William the general desire of all lovers of natural history 
that his letters upon the subject of volcanoes should be collected in one 
volume, he secured the approval of the writer, who added explanatory 
notes and drawings. The first letter of Sir William was dated at Naples, 
June 10th, 1766, addressed to the Right Honorable, the Earl of Morton, 
President of the Royal Society. 

Sir William's first sentence is : 'As I have attended particularly to 



*Sir William Hamilton, who was so adventurous and learned in volcanoes, and 
writes of them with the charm of information and painstaking veracity, was the 
husband of the Lady Hamilton, with whom Lord Nelson got acquainted at Naples, 
while in command of the Mediterranean British fleet. Mr. Wyndham, British Minister 
to Tuscany, arrived from Florence at Naples, and wrote to Lady Minto of the situation 
at Leghorn, where Sir William Hamilton, Lady Hamilton and Lord Nelson were 
spending some time. The Queen wanted a ship of the line to serve her as a yacht 
in the Mediterranean, but Lord Keith would spare her only a frigate, and her 
Majesty wept and had convulsions. Lord Keith did not seem to stand in awe of 
Lord Nelson and his associates. The report was that Nelson and Lady Hamilton 
were so far gone in love and vanity, that they enjoyed flattering each other all 
the day. Lord Keith was of the opinion Lady Hamilton had commanded the British 
Mediterranean long enough. The Leghorn gossip was that Nelson was in high 
spirits and enjoying the situation amazingly; but that Sir William Hamilton, who 
had climbed Mount Vesuvius twenty-seven times, was looking disheartened, dis- 
tressed and harassed. Lord Nelson was twice severely wounded, losing his right 
arm at Tenneriffe, and was struck during the battle of the Nile by a splinter of 
iron that cut through the skin of his forehead, the flap completely covering his 
eyes, one of which was blind. He thought himself in a dying condition, and 
pathetically asked that Lady Nelson should be remembered by his country. When 
he was dying at Trafalgar, he spoke not of Lady Nelson, but of Lady Hamilton, with 
his latest breath pleading that she should be cared for. a bequest of good will that 
was soon forgotten ; but she was a difficult lady, as the famous volcano explorer could 
testify. 



338 PHENOMENA OF VESUVIUS 

the various changes of Mount Vesuvius, from the 17th of November, 
1764, the day of my arrival at this capital, I flatter myself that my ob- 
servations will not be unacceptable to your Lordship, especially as this 
volcano has lately made a very considerable eruption." 

Sir William did not, during the first year of his residence in Naples, 
perceive any remarkable alteration in the mountain, but observed the 
smoke from the volcano was much more considerable in bad weather 
than when it was fair. In reflecting upon this circumstance, Sir William 
says he believes the weight of the atmosphere in bad weather, prevent- 
ing the free dissipation of the smoke, gave it the appearance of being 
more considerable, but it was the commonly received opinion at Naples 
that when Vesuvius grumbled, bad weather was at hand, and that the 
Bay of Naples, agitated and swelling before the arrival of a storm, 
might force itself into crevices, leading to the bowels of the volcano, and 
by causing a new fermentation, produce those explosions and grumblings. 
When he had been at the top of Mount Vesuvius in fair weather, he some- 
times found so little smoke as to be able to see far down the mouth of 
the volcano, the sides of which were encrusted with salts and minerals 
of various colors — white, green, deep and pale yellow — and the smoke 
that issued from the mouth of the volcano was white, very moist and not 
so offensive as sulphurous steam. 

In the month of September, 1765, the smoke became more consider- 
able, even in fair weather, and in October puffs of black smoke would 
shoot up to a considerable height in the midst of the white, a symptom 
of an approaching eruption that grew more frequent, and soon after the 
puffs of smoke appeared in the night tinged like clouds with the setting- 
sun. 

About the beginning of November, Sir William ascended the 
mountain, then covered with snow, and perceived a little hillock of 
sulphur thrown up since his last visit. This was about forty yards from 
the mouth of the volcano and six feet high, with a light blue flame issuing 
constantly from its top. While examining this phenomenon, Sir Wil- 



PHENOMENA OF VESUVIUS 339 

Ham heard a violent report, saw a column of black smoke, "followed by 
a reddish flame, shot up with violence from the mouth of the volcano; 
and presently fell a shower of stones, one of which falling near me 
made me retire with some precipitation, and also rendered me more 
cautious of approaching too near in my subsequent journeys to 
Vesuvius." The great eruption of which these were preliminaries, in 
November, began on Good Friday, 28th of March. Ashes had been 
falling and doing damage in the vineyards. A few days before the 
eruption there was visible what Pliny the younger mentioned before the 
eruption of Vesuvius that proved fatal to his uncle, the black smoke 
taking the form of a pine tree. This smoke appeared black in the day 
time for nearly two months before the eruption, but had the appearance 
of flame in the night. When the lava was in sight, Sir William and a 
party of Englishmen passed a night upon the mountain, and "observed 
that, though the red-hot stones were thrown up in much greater num- 
ber, and to a more considerable height than before the appearance of the 
lava, the report was much less considerable." The lava ran nearly a mile 
in an hour, had the appearance of a river of red-hot and liquid metal. 
Three days after the beginning of the eruption, "the mouth of the volcano 
threw up every minute a girandole of red-hot stones to an immense 
height," some of a ton weight, mounted at least two hundred feet. 

After a month, the lava stopped flowing on the side toward Naples 
and broke out violently in another place, about half a mile from the 
mouth of the volcano 1 , and threw up inflamed matter to a considerable 
height. Notwithstanding the consistency of the lava, it ran with amaz- 
ing velocity, soon divided into three branches, each a river of fire, with 
the appearance at night of a continued sheet of fire four miles long, and 
in some places two in breadth. Sir William was surprised that no chem- 
ist had ever been at the trouble of analyzing the productions of 
Vesuvius. 

It was counted in the records kept in Naples, of Vesuvius, that the 



340 PHENOMENA OF VESUVIUS 

violent eruption that began October 19th, 1767, was the twenty-sixth 
since the one that in the time of Titus destroyed Pompeii. 

Sir William made an excursion, December, 1766, into the ancient 
crater, and about twenty-feet deep. "The deep yellow, or orange-color 
salts, of which there are two bottles, I fetched out of the very crater of 
the mountain, in a crevice that was indeed very hot. It seems to me 
to be powerful, as it turns silver black in an instant, but has no effect 
upon gold. If your Lordship pleases, I will send you by another op- 
portunity specimens of the sulphurs and salts of the solsa terra, which 
seem to be very different from these. 

"Within these three days, the fire has appeared again on the top / of 
Vesuvius, and earthquakes have been felt in the neighborhood of the 
mountain. I was there on Saturday with my nephew, Lord Greville ; we 
heard most dreadful inward grumblings, rattlings of stones, and hissing 
and were obliged to leave the crater very soon on account of the emission 
of stones." 

On another occasion Sir William says : 

"In all accounts of great eruptions of Mount Etna and Mount 
Vesuvius, I have found mention of this sort of lightning. Pliny the 
younger, in his second letter to* Tacitus upon the eruption of Vesuvius 
in the time of Titus, says that a black and horrible cloud covered them 
at Misenum (which is above fifteen miles from the volcano), and that 
flashes of zigzag fire, like lightning, but stronger, burst from it; these 
are his words : 'ab altero latere nubes atra et horrenda ignei spiritus 
tortis vibratisque discursibus rupta, in longas flammarum figuras dehesce- 
bat; fulgoribus illae et fimiles et majores erant.' This was evidently the 
famed electrical fire, and with which I am convinced the smoke of all 
volcanoes is pregnant. In several accounts of the great eruption of 
Vesuvius in 1631, mention is made of damage done by the lightning that 
issued from the column of smoke. Bulison, in particular, says, that, in 
the neighborhood of the volcano, people were struck dead in the same 
manner as if by lightning, without having their clothes singed. Pliny 



PHENOMENA OF VESUVIUS 341 

mentions a like instance which shows that the ancients had observed this 
phenomenon; for he says that at Pompeii, the day being fair, Marcus 
Herennius was struck dead by lightning. 

"I was making my observations upon the lava, which had already, 
from the spot where it first broke out, reached the valley; when, on a 
sudden, about noon, I heard a violent noise within the mountain, and 
about a quarter of a mile from the place where I stood, the mountain 
split, and with much noise from this new mouth, a fountain of liquid 
fire shot up many feet high, and then, like a torrent, rolled on directly 
towards us. The earth shook, at the same time that a volley of pumice 
stones fell thick upon us ; in an instant clouds of black smoke and ashes 
caused almost total darkness ; the explosions from the top of the mountain 
were much louder than any thunder I ever heard, and the smell of 
sulphur was very offensive. My guide, alarmed, took to his heels ; and I 
must confess that I was not at my ease. I followed close, and we ran 
near three miles without stopping; as the earth continued to shake under 
our feet, I was apprehensive of the opening of a fresh mouth, which 
might cut off our retreat. I also feared that the violent explosions would 
detach some of the rocks off the mountain of Somma, under which we 
were obliged to pass ; besides, the pumice stones, falling upon us like hail, 
were of such a size as to cause a disagreeable sensation upon the part 
where they fell. After having taken breath, as the earth still trembled 
greatly, I thought it most prudent to leave the mountain and return to 
the villa, where I found my family in a great alarm at the continual 
and violent explosions of the volcano, which shook our house to its very 
foundation, the doors and windows swinging upon their hinges. 

"I observed, in my way to Naples, which was in less than two hours 
after I had left the mountain, that the lava had actually covered three 
miles of the very road through which we had retreated. It is astonish- 
ing that it should have run so fast; as I have since seen that the river 
of lava, in the Atrio di Cavallo, was sixty and seventy feet deep, and in 
some places near two miles broad. When his Sicilian Majesty quitted 



342 PHENOMENA OF VESUVIUS 

Portici, the noise was greatly increased; and the concussion of the air 
from the explosions was so violent, that, in the king's palace, doors and 
windows were forced open; and even one door there, which was locked, 
was nevertheless burst open. At Naples, the same night, many windows 
and doors flew open ; in my house, which is not on the side of the town 
next Vesuvius, I tried the experiment of unbolting my windows, when 
they flew wide open upon every explosion of the mountain. Besides 
these explosions, which were very frequent, there was a continued sub- 
terranean and violent rumbling noise, which lasted this night about five 
hours. I have imagined that this extraordinary noise might be owing to 
the lava in the bow r els of the mountain having met with a deposition of 
rain water ; and that the conflict between the fire and water may, in some 
measure, account for so extraordinary a crackling and hissing noise. 
Padre Torre, who has written so much and so well upon the subject of 
Mount Vesuvius, is also of my opinion. And, indeed, it is natural to 
imagine, that there may be rain water lodged in many of the caverns of 
the mountain; as, in the great eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 1631, it is 
well attested, that several towns, among which Portici and Torre del 
Greco, were destroyed, by a torrent of boiling water having burst out of 
the mountain with the lava, by which thousands of lives were lost. 
About four years ago, Mount Etna in Sicily threw up hot water also, 
during an eruption. 

"The Parisian barometer was, as yesterday, at 279, and Fahrenheit's 
thermometer at 70 degrees ; whereas, for some days preceding the erup- 
tion, it had been at 65 and 66. During the confusion of this night, the 
prisoners in the public jail attempted to escape, having wounded the 
jailer, but were prevented by the troops. The mob also set fire to the 
Cardinal Archbishop's gate, because he refused to bring out the relics 
of Saint Januarius." 

Writing near Mount Vesuvius, October 4th, 1763, Sir William says, 
after a talk with the peasantry as to what had been going on since the 
last eruption : 




THEATRE AT SAN JOSE, COSTA RICA. SCHOOL HOUSE IN SAN JOSE, COSTA RICA 



I 





?IEW ON SAN JUAN RIVER, COSTA RICA 



PIER AT GREYTOWN, NICARAGUA. 



PHENOMENA OF VESUVIUS 345 

"In some accounts of an eruption of Vesuvius in 1660, I find men- 
tion made of ashes which fell in the shape of crosses, and were looked 
upon as highly miraculous; but in one book upon this subject, entitled, 
Athanasii Kircheri Soc. Fes? De prodigiosis crucibus, etc., Rome 
MDCLXI, a very philosophical account is given of this phenomenon; 
he says that, in 1660, from the 16th of August to the 15th of October, 
Vesuvius cast up ashes, impregnated with nitrous, saline and bituminous 
sulphur, which upon linen garments took the form of crosses, probably 
directed by the crossthreads in the linen, and therefore that the salts 
did not shoot into such a shape when they fell upon garments of woolen ; 
a very particular description of these crosses may be found in page 28, 
of the above mentioned book." 

Sir William gives the most interesting accounts ever seen of the 
formation of Vesuvius, and the early discovery in the ruins of Pompeii. 
He says: 

"I am of the same opinion with respect to Mount Vesuvius, and all 
the high grounds near Naples ; as having yet seen, in any one place, what 
can be called virgin earth. I had the pleasure of seeing a well sunk, a 
few days ago, near my villa, which is, as you know, at the foot of 
Vesuvius, and close by the sea-side. At twenty-five feet below the level 
of the sea, they came to a stratum of lava, and God knows how much 
deeper they might have still found other lavas. The soil all round the 
mountain, which is so fertile, consists of stratas of lavas, ashes, pumice 
and now and then a thin stratum of good earth, which good earth is pro- 
duced by the surface mouldering, and the rotting of the roots of plants, 
vines, etc. This is plainly to be seen at Pompeii, where they are now 
digging into the ruins of that ancient city; the houses are covered about 
ten or fifteen feet, with pumice and fragments of lava, some of which 
weigh three pounds (which last circumstance I mention to show, that, 
in a great eruption, Vesuvius has thrown stones of this weight six miles, 
which is its distance from Pompeii, in a direct line ; upon this stratum of 
pumice, or rapilli, as they call them here, is a stratum of excellent mould, 



346 PHENOMENA OF VESUVIUS 

about two feet thick, on which grow large trees, and excellent grapes. 

"I have since found in this stratum of erupted matter at Pompeii, 
stones weighing eight pounds ; but many accounts of the great eruption 
of Vesuvius, particularly that of Antonio Bulison, mention that a stone 
like a bomb was thrown from the crater of Vesuvius in 1631, and fell 
upon the Marquis of Lauro's house at Nola, which it set on fire. As 
Nola is twelve miles from Vesuvius, this circumstance seems rather ex- 
traordinary; however, I have seen stones of an enormous size shot up 
to a very great height by Mount Vesuvius. In May, 1771, having a 
stop watch in my hand, I observed that one of these stones was eleven 
seconds falling from its greatest height, into the crater from whence it 
had been ejected. In 1767, a solid stone, measuring twelve feet in 
height, and forty-five in circumference, was thrown a quarter of a mile 
from the crater; the eruption of 1767, though by much the most violent 
of this century, was, comparatively to those of the year 1679 and 1631, 
very mild." 

Again Sir William says : 

"Vesuvius is quiet at present, though very hot at the top, where there 
is a deposition of boiling sulphur. The lava that ran in the Fossa Grande 
during the last eruption, and is at least two hundred feet thick, is not 
yet cool ; a flick, put into crevices, takes fire immediately. On the sides 
of the crevices are fine crystalline salts ; as they are the pure salts, which 
exhale from the lava that has no communication with the interior of the 
mountain, they may perhaps indicate the composition of the lava." 

Writing at Naples, October 17, 1769, Sir William says: 

' After having examined with much attention the operations of Mount 
Vesuvius, during the five years that I have had the honor of residing as 
his Majesty's Minister at this Court, and after having carefully re- 
marked the nature of the soil for fifteen miles round this capital, I am, 
in my own mind, well convinced that the whole of it had been formed by 
explosion. Many of the craters, from whence this matter has issued, 
are still visible ; such as the Solsaterra near Puzzole, the lake of Agnano, 



PHENOMENA OF VESUVIUS 347 

and near this lake a mountain composed of burnt matter, that had a very 
large crater surrounded with a wall, to inclose the wild boars and deer, 
that are kept there for the diversion of his Sicilian Majesty; it is called 
Astruni ; the Monte Nuovo, thrown up from the bottom of the Lucrine 
lake, in the year 1538, which was likewise its crater, and the lake of 
Averno. The islands of Nisida and Procida are entirely composed of 
burnt matter ; the island of Ischia is likewise composed of lava, pumice, 
and burnt matter; and there are in that island several visible craters, 
from one of which, no longer ago than the year 1303, there issued a lava, 
which ran into the sea." 

MOUNT ETNA. 

Sir William Hamilton, after his studies of Vesuvius, concluded to 
visit Etna, and his first observation was this, relating to the carelessness 
of people in highly volcanic regions. Speaking of Catania, often de- 
stroyed by Etna and rebuilt, he says : 

"I do not wonder at the seeming security with which these parts are 
inhabited, having been so long witness to the same near Mount Vesuvius. 
The operations of nature are slow; great eruptions do not frequently 
happen; each flatters himself it will not happen in his time, or, if it 
should, that his tutelar saint will turn away the destructive lava from his 
grounds ; and indeed the great fertility in the neighborhoods of volcanoes 
tempts people to inhabit them." 

In 1693 an earthquake destroyed forty-nine towns and villages, nine 
hundred and twenty-two churches, colleges and convents and nearly one 
hundred thousand persons were buried in the ruins. An extraordinarily 
fascinating account of this fearful and fatal eruption is entitled, "A true 
and exact relation of the late prodigious earthquake and eruption of 
Mount Etna, or Monte Gibello, as it came in a letter written to his 
Majesty from Naples, by the Right Honorable the Earl of Winchelsea, 
his Majesty's late Embassador at Constantinople, who in his return from 
thence, visiting Catania in the island of Sicily, was an eye-witness of that 



348 PHENOMENA OF VESUVIUS 

dreadful spectacle ; together with a more particular narrative of the same, 
as it is collected out of the several relations sent from Catania; pub- 
lished by authority. Printed by T. Newcomb, in the Savoy, 1669." 

"I accepted," says the author, "the invitation of the Bishop of 
Catania, to stay a day with him, that so I might be the better able to 
inform your Majesty of that extraordinary fire, which comes from Mount 
Gibel, fifteen miles distant from that city, which, for its horridness in 
the aspect, for the vast quantity thereof (for it is fifteen miles in length 
and seven in breadth), for its monstrous devastation and quick -progress, 
may be termed an inundation of fire, a flood of fire, cinders, and burning- 
stones, burning with that rage as to advance into the sea six hundred 
yards, and that to a mile in breadth, which I saw; and that which did 
augment my admiration was, to see in the sea this matter like ragged 
rocks, burning in four fathom water, two fathom higher than the sea 
itself, some parts liquid, and throwing off, not with great violence, the 
stones about it, which, like a crust of vast bigness, and red hot, fell into 
the sea' every moment, in some place or other, causing a great and horrible 
noise, smoke and hissing in the sea ; and that more and more coming after 
it, making a firm foundation in the sea itself. I stayed there from nine 
o'clock on Saturday morning, to seven next morning;" (this must have 
been towards the middle or latter end of April;) "and this mountain of 
fire and stones and cinders had advanced into the sea twenty yards at 
least, in several places ; in the middle of this fire, which burnt in the sea, 
it had formed like to a river, with its banks on each side very steep and 
craggy; and in this channel moves the greatest quantity of this fire, 
which is the most liquid, with stones of the fine composition, and cinders 
all red hot, swimming upon the fire of a great magnitude; from this a 
river of fire doth proceed under the great mass of the stones, which are 
generally three fathoms high all over the country, where it burns, and in 
other places much more. There are secret conduits or rivulets of this 
liquid matter, which communicates fire and heat into all parts more or 
less, and melts the stones and cinders by fits in those places where it 



PHENOMENA OF VESUVIUS 319 

toucheth them, over and over again ; wfrere it meets with rocks or houses 
of the same matter (as many are), they melt and go away with the fire; 
where they find other compositions, they turn them to lime "or ashes, as 
I am informed. The composition of this fire, stones and cinders, are 
sulphur, nitre, quick-silver, sal ammoniac, lead, iron, brass, and all other 
metals. It moves not regularly, nor constantly down hill ; in some places 
it hath made the valleys hills, and the hills that are not high are now 
valleys. When it was night, I went upon two towers, in divers places ; 
and could plainly see at ten miles distance, as we judged, the fire to begin 
to run from the mountain in a direct line, the flame to ascend as high and 
as big as one of the greatest steeples in your Majesty's kingdoms, and to 
throw up great stones into the air ; I could discern the river of fire to de- 
scend the mountain of a terrible fiery or red color, and stones of a paler 
red to swim thereon, and to be some as big as an ordinary table. We 
could see this fire to move in several places, and all the country covered 
with fire, ascending with great flames, in many places, smoking like to a 
violent furnace of iron melted, making a noise with the great pieces that 
fell, especially those which fell into the sea. A Cavalier of Malta, who 
lives there, and attended me, told me, that the river was a liquid where 
it issues out of the mountain, as water, and came out like a torrent with 
great violence, and is five or six fathom deep, and as broad, and that no 
stones sink therein. I assure your Majesty, no pen can express how 
terrible it is, nor can all the art and industry of the world quench or 
divert that which is burning in the country. In forty days time, it hath 
destroyed the habitations of twenty-seven thousand persons; made two 
hills of one, one thousand paces high apiece, and one is four miles in com- 
pass ; of twenty thousand persons, which inhabit Catania, three thousand 
did only remain; all their goods are carried away, the cannons of brass 
are removed out of the castle, some great bells taken down, the city 
gates walled up next the fire, and preparations made to abandon the city. 
"That night which I lay there, it rained ashes all over the- city, and 
ten miles at sea it troubled my eyes. This fire in its progress met with a 



350 PHENOMENA OF VESUVIUS 

lake of four miles in compass ; and it was not only satisfied to fill it up. 
though it was four fathom deep, but hath made of it a mountain." 

Speaking of the caverns of Etna, Sir William says of the astonishing 
storage of snow and its commercial use : 

"At the foot of the mountain, raised by the eruption of the year 1669, 
there is a hole, through which, by means of a rope, we descended into 
several subterraneous caverns, branching out and extending much farther 
and deeper than we chose to venture; the cold there being excessive, 
and a violent wind frequently extinguishing some of our torches. These 
caverns undoubtedly contained the lava that issued forth, and extended, 
as I said before, quite to Catania. There are many of these subterrane- 
ous cavities known on other parts of Etna, such as that called by the 
peasants La Baracca Vecchia, another La Spelonca della Palomba (from 
the wild pigeons building their nests therein), and the cavern Thalia, 
mentioned by Boccaccio. Some of them are made use of as magazines 
for snow ; the whole island of Sicily and Malta being supplied with this 
essential article (in a hot climate) from Mount Etna. Many more would 
be found, I dare say, if searched for, particularly near and under the 
craters from whence great lavas have issued, as the immense quantities 
of such matter we see above ground must necessarily suppose very great 
hollows underneath." 

As to the surroundings of Mount Etna. Sir William remarks that he 
proceeded through the "second or middle region of Etna, called the 
Woody," than which nothing can be more beautiful. 

"On every side are mountains, or fragments of mountains, that have 
been thrown up by various ancient explosions ; there are some near as 
high as Mount Vesuvius; one in particular (as the Canon our guide 
assured me, having measured it) is little less than one mile in perpen- 
dicular height, and five in circumference at its basis. They are all more 
or less covered, even within their craters, as well as the rich valleys be- 
tween them, with the largest oak, chestnut, and fir trees I ever saw any- 
where; and indeed it is from hence chiefly, that his Sicilian Majesty's 



PHENOMENA OF VESUVIUS 351 

dock yards are supplied with timber. As this part of Etna was famous 
for its timber in the time of the Tyrants of Syracuse, and as it requires 
the great length of time I have already mentioned before the matter is 
fit for vegetation, we may conceive the great age of this respectable 
volcano. The chestnut trees predominated in the parts through which 
we passed, and, though of a very great size, are not to be compared to 
some on another part of the Regione Selvosa, called Carpinetto. I have 
been told by many, and particularly by our guide, who had measured the 
largest there, called La Castagna di Cento Cavalli, that it is upwards of 
twenty-eight Neapolitan canes in circumference. Now as a Neapolitan 
cane is two yards and half a quarter, English measure, you may 
judge, sir, of the immense size of this famous tree. It is hollow from 
age, but there is another near it almost as large and sound.' 4 - 

As to Mount Etna itself, Sir William says : 

"We pursued our journey towards the great crater. We passed over 
valleys of snow, that never melts except there is an eruption of lava from 
the upper crater, which scarcely ever happens; the great eruptions are 
usually from the middle region, the inflamed matter finding (as I sup- 
pose) its passage through some weak part, long before it can rise to the 
excessive height of the upper region, the great mouth on the summit 
only serving as a common chimney to the volcano. In many places the 
snow is covered with a bed of ashes, thrown out of the crater, and the 
sun melting it in some parts makes this ground treacherous ; but as we 
had with us, besides our guide, a peasant well accustomed to these valleys, 
we arrived safe at the foot of the little mountain of ashes that crowns 
Etna, about an hour before the rising of the sun. This mountain is 
situated in a gently inclining plain, of about nine miles in circumference; 
it is about a quarter of a mile perpendicular in height, very steep, but not 
quite so steep as Vesuvius; it has been thrown up within these twenty- 
five or thirty years, as many people at Catania have told me they remem- 
bered when there was only a large chasm or crater in the midst of the 
above-mentioned plain. Till now, the ascent had been so gradual (for 



352 PHENOMENA OF VESUVIUS 

the top of Etna is not less than thirty miles from Catania, from whence 
the ascent begins) as not to have been the least fatiguing; and if it had 
not been for the snow, we might have rode upon our mules to the very- 
foot of the little mountain." 

"Soon after we had seated ourselves on the highest point of Etna, 
the sun arose, and displayed a scene that indeed passes all description. 
The horizon lighting up by degrees, we discovered the greatest part of 
Calabria, and the sea on the other side of it, the Phare of Messina, the 
Lipari Islands; Stromboli, with its smoking top, though at above 
seventy miles distance, seemed to be just under our feet ; we saw the whole 
island of Sicily, its rivers, towns, harbors, etc., as if we had been looking 
on a map. The island of Malta is low ground, and there was a haziness 
in that part of the horizon, so that we could not discern it ; our guide as- 
sured us he had seen it distinctly at other times, which I can believe, 
as in other parts of the horizon, that were not hazy, we saw to a much 
greater distance; besides, we had a clear view of Etna's top from our 
ship, as we were going into the mouth of the harbor of Malta some weeks 
before ; in short, as I have since measured on a good chart, we took in at 
one view a circle of about nine hundred English miles. The pyramidal 
shadow of the mountain reached across the whole island, and far into the 
sea on the other side. I counted from hence forty-four little mountains 
(little I call them in comparison to their mother Etna, though they 
would appear great anywhere else) in the middle region of the Catania 
side, and many others on the other side of the mountain, all of a conical 
form, and each having its crater ; many with timber trees flourishing both 
within and without their craters. The points of those mountains that I 
imagine to be the most ancient are blunted, and the craters of course more 
extensive and less deep than those' of the mountains formed by explosions 
of a later date, and which preserve their pyramidal form entire. Some 
have been so far" mouldered down by time, as- to -have -no other -appear- 
ance of a crater than a sort of" dimple' or" hollow on their rounded tops, 
others with only half or' a third part of their cone standing; the parts 



PHENOMENA OF VESUVIUS 353 

that are wanting having mouldered down, or perhaps been detached from 
them by earthquakes, which are here very frequent. All, however, have 
been evidently raised by explosion; and I believe, upon examination, 
many of the whimsical shapes of mountains in other parts of the world 
would prove to have been occasioned by the same natural operations. I 
observed that these mountains were generally in lines or ridges; they 
have mostly a fracture on one side, the same as in the little mountains 
raised by explosion on the sides of Vesuvius, of which there are eight or 
nine. This fracture is occasioned by the lava's forcing its way out, which 
operation I have described in my account of the last eruption of Vesuvius. 
Whenever I shall meet with a mountain, in any part of the world, whose 
form is regularly conical, with a hollow crater on its top, and one side 
broken, I shall be apt to decide such a mountain's having been formed 
by an eruption; as both Etna and Vesuvius the mountains formed by 
explosion are without exception according to this description." 

The crater of Etna is thus vividly sketched, after the remark that the 
Emperor Adrian ascended the mountain. Sir William found the crater 
about two miles and a half in circumference, and at the edge "some parts 
seemed to be very underground." This description is continued: 

"The inside of the crater, which is incrusted with salts and sulphurs 
like that of Vesuvius, is in the form of an inverted hollow cone, and its 
depth nearly answers to the height of the little mountain that crowns the 
great volcano. The smoke, issuing abundantly from the sides and 
bottom, prevented our seeing quite down ; but the wind clearing away the 
smoke from time to time, I saw this inverted cone contracted almost to a 
point. 

"The smoke of Etna, though very sulphurous, did not appear to me 
so fetid and disagreeable as that of Vesuvius ; but our guide told me that 
its quality varies, as I know that of Vesuvius does, according to the 
quality of the matter then in motion within. The air was so very pure 
and keen in the whole upper region of Etna, and particularly in' the most 



354 PHENOMENA OF VESUVIUS 

elevated parts of it, that we had a difficulty in respiration, and that, inde- 
pendent of the sulphurous vapor. 

"A Mr. Brydone remarked, as he went up in the night, that he could 
distinguish the stars in the milky way with wonderful clearness, and that 
the cold was much more intense than he had ever felt upon the highest 
mountains of the Alps.'"' 

The estimated height of Etna was three perpendicular miles. The lava 
lands are fifteen to twenty miles in length, six or seven in breadth, and 
fifty feet and more in depth. The productions of Etna and Vesuvius 
are much the same. 

The sea shore at the foot of Etna, indeed, abounds with amber, of 
which there is none found at the foot of Vesuvius. At present there is a 
much greater quantity of sulphur and salts on the top of Vesuvius than 
on that of Etna; but this circumstance varies according to the degree 
of fermentation within; and our guide assured me he had seen greater 
quantities on Etna at other times. In our way back to Catania, the 
Canon showed me a little hill, covered with vines, which belonged to the 
Jesuits, and, as is well attested, was undermined by the lava in the year 
1669, and transported half a mile from the place where it stood, without 
having damaged the vines. In great eruptions of Etna, the same sort of 
lightning, as described in my account of the last eruption of Vesuvius, 
has been frequently seen to issue. 

Till the year 252 of Christ, the chronological accounts of the eruptions 
of Etna are very imperfect; but as the veil of St. Agatha was in that 
year first opposed to check the violence of the torrents of lava, and has 
ever since been produced at the time of great eruptions; the miracles 
attributed to its influence, having been carefully recorded by the priests, 
have at least preserved the dates of such eruptions. The relics of St. 
Januarius have rendered the same service to the lovers of natural history, 
by recording the great eruptions of Vesuvius. I find, by the dates of 
the eruptions of Etna, that it is as irregular and uncertain in its opera- 
tions as Vesuvius. The last eruption was in 1766. The dates of the 



PHENOMENA OF VESUVIUS 355 

eruptions of Mount Etna, recorded by history, are as follows : Before 
the Christian area four, in the years 3525, 3538, 3554, 3843. After 
Christ, twenty-seven have been recorded, 1175, 1285, 1 3 2l > x 3 2 3> *3 2 9> 
1408, 1530, 1536, 1537, 1540, 1545, 1554, 1556, 1566, 1579, 1614, 1634, 
1636, 1643, 1669, 1682, 1689, 1692, 1702, 1747, 1755, 1766. 

The dates of the eruptions of Vesuvius are as follows : After Christ, 
79, 203, 472, 512, 685, 993, 1036, 1043, I0 48, 1 136, 1506, (!53 8 > the 
eruption at Puzzole), 1631, 1660, 1682, 1694, 1701, 1704, 17 12, 1717, 
1 73°, 1737, 175 r, 1754, 1760, 1766, 1767, 1770, 1 77 1. 

The great intelligence and deep interest declared, in the things well 
selected as instructive, that appears in Sir William Hamilton's letters, 
invite us to give express attention to his Vesuvian historical investi- 
gations and observations. Sir William says : 

"Herculaneum and Pompeii stood once above ground, though now 
the former is in no part less than seventy feet, and in some parts one 
hundred and twelve feet, below the present surface of the earth ; and the 
latter is buried ten or twelve feet deep, more or less. As we know by the 
very accurate account given by Pliny the younger to Tacitus, and from 
the accounts of other contemporary authors, that these towns were 
buried by an eruption of Mount Vesuvius in the time of Titus; it must 
be allowed that whatever matter lies between these cities and the present 
surface of the earth over them, must have been produced since the year 
79 of the Christian era, the date of that formidable eruption. 

"Pompeii, which is situated at a much greater distance from the 
volcano than Herculaneum, has felt the effects of a single eruption only ; 
it is covered with white pumice stones, mixed with fragments of lava 
and burnt matter, large and small; the pumice is very light, but I have 
found some of the fragments of lava and cinders there, weighing eight 
pounds. I have often wondered that such weighty bodies could have 
been carried to such a distance (for Pompeii can not be less than five 
miles in a straight line, from the mouth of Vesuvius). Every observa- 
tion confirms the fall of this horrid flower over the unfortunate city of 



356 PHENOMENA OF VESUVIUS 

Pompeii, and that few of its inhabitants had dared to venture out of 
their houses; for in many of those which have been already cleared, 
skeletons have been found, some with gold rings, ear rings and bracelets. 
I have been present at the discovery of several human skeletons myself; 
and under a vaulted arch, about two years ago, at Pompeii, I saw the 
bones of a man and a horse taken up, with the fragments of the horse's 
furniture, which had been ornamented with false gems set in bronze. 
The skulls of some of the skeletons found in the streets had been evi- 
dently fractured by the fall of the stones. His Sicilian Majesty's ex- 
cavations are confined to this spot at present, and the curious in antiquity 
may expect hereafter, from so rich a mine, ample matter for their dis- 
sertations; but I will confine myself to such observations only as relate 
to my present subject. 

"Over the stratum of pumice and burnt matter that covers Pompeii 
there is a stratum of good mould, of the thickness of about two feet, and 
more in some parts, in which vines flourish, except in some particular 
spots of this vineyard, where they are subject to be blasted by a foul 
vapor, or mosete, as it is called here, that rises from beneath the burnt 
matter. The above mentioned shower of pumice stones, according to my 
observations, extended beyond Castel-a-Mare (near which spot the 
cmcient town of Stabia also lies buried under them), and covered a tract 
of country not less than thirty miles in circumference. It was at Stabia 
that Pliny the elder lost his life, and this shower of pumice stones is well 
described in the younger Pliny's letter. Little of the matter that has 
issued from Vesuvius since that time had reached ' these parts ; but I 
must observe, that the pavement of the streets of Pompeii is of lava ; nay, 
under the foundation of the town, there is a deep stratum of lava and 
burnt matter. These circumstances, with many others that will be related 
hereafter, prove, beyond a doubt, that there have been eruptions of 
Vesuvius previous to that of the year 79, which is the first recorded by 
history. 

"The growth of soil by time is easily accounted for; and who, that 



PHENOMENA OF VESUVIUS 357 

has visited ruins of ancient edifices, has not often seen a flourishing 
shrub, in a good soil, upon the top of an old wall? I have remarked 
many such on the most considerable ruins at Rome and elsewhere. But 
from the soil which has grown over the barren pumice that covers 
Pompeii, I was enabled to make a curious observation. Upon examining 
the cuts and hollow ways made by currents of water in the neighborhood 
of Vesuvius and other volcanoes, I had remarked that there lay fre- 
quently a stratum of rich soil, of more or less depth, between the matter 
produced by the explosion of succeeding eruptions, and I was naturally 
led to think that such a stratum had grown in the same manner as the 
one above mentioned over the pumice stone of Pompeii. Where the 
stratum of good soil was thick, it was evident to me that many years 
had elapsed between one eruption and that which succeeded it. I do 
not pretend to say that a just estimate can be performed of the great age 
of volcanoes from this observation, but some sort of calculation might 
be made ; for instance, should an explosion of pumice cover again the spot 
under which Pompeii is buried, the stratum of rich soil above mentioned 
would certainly lie between two beds of pumice, and if a like incident 
had happened a thousand years ago, the stratum of rich soil would as 
certainly have wanted much of its present thickness, as the rotting of 
vegetables, manure, etc., is ever increasing a cultivated soil. Whenever 
I find then a succession of different strata of pumice and burnt matter, 
like that which covers Pompeii, intermixed with strata of rich soil, of 
greater or less depth, I hope I may be allowed reasonably to conclude 
that the whole has been the production of a long series of eruptions, oc- 
casioned by subterraneous fire. By the size and weight of the pumice, 
the fragments of burnt erupted matter in these strata, it is easy to trace 
them up to their source, which I have done more than once in the neigh- 
borhood of Puzzole, where explosions have been frequent. The gradual 
decrease in the size and quantity of the erupted matter in the stratum 
above mentioned, from Pompeii to Castel-a-Mare, is very visible; at 



358 PHENOMENA OF VESUVIUS 

Pompeii., as I said before, I have found them of eight pounds weight, 
when at Castel-a-Mare the largest do not weigh an ounce. 

''The matter which covers the ancient town of Herculaneum is not 
the produce of one eruption only, for there are evident marks that the 
matter of six eruptions has taken its course over that which lies immedi- 
ately above the town, and was the cause of its destruction. These strata 
are either lava or burnt matter, with veins of good soil between them. 
The stratum of erupted matter that immediately covers the town, and 
with which the theater and most of the houses were filled, is not of that 
foul vitrified matter, called lava, but of a sort of soft stone, composed 
of pumice, ashes, and burnt matter. It is exactly of the same nature with 
what is called here the Naples stone; the Italians distinguish it by the 
name of tusa, and it is in general use for building. Its color is usually 
that of our free stone, but sometimes tinged with grey, green and yellow, 
and the pumice stones, with which it ever abounds, are sometimes large, 
and sometimes small ; it varies likewise in its degree of solidity. 

"I saw the head of an antique statue dug out of this matter within 
the theater of Herculaneum ; the impression of its face remains to this 
day in the tusa, and might serve as a mould for a cast in plaster-of-Paris, 
being as perfect as any mould I ever saw. As much may be inferred 
from the exact resemblance of this matter, or tusa, which immediately 
covers Herculaneum, to all the tusas of which the high grounds of 
Naples and its neighborhood are composed. I detached a piece of it 
sticking to, and incorporated with, the painted stucco of the inside of the 
theater of Herculaneum. 

"If it were allowed to make a comparison between the earth and a 
human body, one might consider a country replete with combustibles 
occasioning explosions (which is surely the case here) to be like a body 
full of humors concenter in one part, and form a great tumor out of 
which they are discharged freely, the body is less agitated; but when, by 
any accident, the humors are checked, and do not find free passage 
through their usual channel, the body is agitated, and tumors appear in 



PHENOMENA OF VESUVIUS 359 

other parts of that body, but soon after the humors return again to their 
former channel. In a similar manner, one may conceive Vesuvius to be 
the present great channel, through which nature discharges some of the 
foul humors of the earth ; when these humors are checked by any accident 
or stoppage in this channel for any considerable time, earthquakes will be 
frequent in its neighborhood, and explosions may be apprehended even 
at some distance from it. This was the case in the year 1538, Vesuvius 
having been quiet for near four hundred years. There was no eruption 
from its great crater, from the year 11 39 to the great eruption of 1631, 
and the top of the mountain began to lose all signs of fire. As it is not 
foreign to my purpose and will serve to show how greatly they are mis- 
taken, who place the seat of the fire in the center, or towards the top, of a 
volcano, I will give you a curious description of the state of the crater 
of Vesuvius after having been free from eruption four hundred and 
ninety-two years, as related by Bracini, who descended into it not long 
before the eruption of 1631. The crater was five miles in circumference, 
and about a thousand paces deep ; its sides were covered with brushwood, 
and at the bottom there was a plain on which cattle grazed. In the 
woody parts, boars frequently harbored ; in the midst of the plain, with 
the crater, was a narrow passage, through which, by a winding path, you 
could descend about a mile amongst rocks and stones, till you came to 
another more spacious plain covered with ashes ; in this plain were three 
little pools, placed in a triangular form, one towards the east, of hot water 
corrosive and bitter beyond measure, one towards the west, of water 
Salter than that of the sea ; the third of hot water, that had no particular 
taste.' 

"The great increase of the cone of Vesuvius, from that time to this, 
naturally induces one to conclude that the whole of the cone was raised 
in the like manner ; and that the part of Vesuvius, called Somma, which 
is now considered as a distinct mountain from it, was composed in the 
same manner. This may plainly be perceived, by examining its interior 
and exterior form, and the strata of lava and burnt matter of which it 



360 PHENOMENA OF VESUVIUS 

is composed. The ancients, in describing Vesuvius, in their time, showed 
signs of its having formerly erupted." 

This opinion on a vexed question is of much value : 

"The mountain now called Somma was, I believe, that which the 
ancients called Vesuvius ; its outside form is conical ; its inside, instead of 
amphitheater, is now like a great theater. I suppose the eruption in 
Pliny's time to have thrown down that part of the cone next the sea, 
which would naturally have left it in its present state, and that the conical 
mountain, or existing Vesuvius, has been raised by the succeeding erup- 
tions; all my observations confirm this opinion. I have seen ancient 
lavas in the plain on the other side of Somma, which could never have 
proceeded from the present Vesuvius. Serao*, a celebrated physician now 
living at Naples, in the introduction of his account of the eruption of 
Vesuvius in 1737 (in which account many of the phenomena of the 
volcano are recorded and very well accounted for), says, that at the con- 
vent of Dominican Fryars, called the Madona del Arco, some years ago, 
in sinking a well, at a hundred feet depth, a lava was discovered, and 
soon after another, so that, in less than three hundred feet depth, the 
lavas of four eruptions were found. From the situation of this convent, 
it is clear beyond a doubt, that these lavas proceeded from the mountain 
called Somma, as they are quite out of the reach of the existing volcano." 

Sir William Hamilton presented to the British Museum a rare volume 
that touches the matter of the forms of new mountains by explosions. 
Marco Antonio delli Falconi, relates simply and exactly the operations 
of nature of which he was either an eye witness, or those related it to 
him, having themselves been witnesses : 

"It is now two years that there have been frequent earthquakes at 
Pozzuolo, at Naples, and the neighboring ports ; on the day and in the 
night before the appearance of this eruption, above twenty shocks great 
and small were felt at the above-mentioned places. The eruption made 
its appearance the 29th of September, 1538, the feast of St. Michael the 
angel ; it was on a Sunday, about an hour in the night ; and, as I have 



PHENOMENA OF VESUVIUS 363 

been informed, they began to see on that spot, between the hot baths or 
sweating rooms, the Trepergule, flames of fire, which first made their 
appearance at the baths, then extended towards Trepergule, and fixing in 
the little valley that lies between the Monte Barbaro and the hillock called 
del Pericolo, which was the road to the lake of A vermis and the baths. 
In a short time the fire increased to such a degree that it burst open the 
earth in this place, and threw up so- great a quantity of ashes and pumice 
stones mixed with water, as covered the whole country ; and in Naples a 
shower of these ashes and water fell great part of the night. The next 
morning, which was Monday, and the last of the month, the poor in- 
habitants of Puzzuolo, struck with so horrible a sight, quitted their 
habitations, covered with that muddy and black shower, which continued 
in that country the whole day, flying death, but with faces painted with 
its colors ; some with their children in their arms, some with sacks full of 
their goods; others leading an ass, loaded with their frightened family, 
towards Naples ; others carrying quantities of birds of various sorts, that 
had fallen dead at the time the eruption began; others again with fish 
which they had found, and were to be met with in plenty upon the shore, 
the sea having been at that time considerably dried up. Don Petro di 
Toledo, Viceroy of the kingdom, with many gentlemen, went to see so 
wonderful an appearance; I also having met with the most honorable 
and incomparable gentleman, Signior Fabritio Moramaldo, on the road, 
went and saw the eruption and the many wonderful effects of it. The 
sea towards Baia had retired a considerable way; though, from the 
quantity of ashes and broken pumice stones thrown up by the eruption, 
it appeared almost totally dry. I saw likewise two springs in those 
lately-discovered ruins, one before the house that was the Queen's, o>f 
hot and salt water, on the shore, about two hundred and fifty paces 
nearer to the eruption ; some say, that still nearer to the spot where the 
eruption happened, a stream of fresh water issued forth like a little river. 
Turning towards the place of the eruption, you saw mountains of smoke, 
part of which was very black and part very white, rise up to a great 



364 PHENOMENA OF VESUVIUS 

height ; and in the midst of the smoke, at times, deep-colored flames burst 
forth with huge stones and ashes, and you heard a noise like the discharge 
of a number of great artillery. It appeared to me as if Typheus and 
Enceladus from Ischia and Etna with innumerable giants, or those from 
the Campi Phlefrei (which, according to the opinions of some, were 
situated in this neighborhood), were come to wage Avar again with 
Jupiter. The natural historians may perhaps reasonably say, that the 
wise poets meant no more by giants, than exhalations, shut up in the 
bowels of the earth, which, not finding a free passage, open one by their 
own force and impulse, and form mountains, as those which occasioned 
this eruption have been seen to do; and methought I saw those torrents 
of burning smoke that Pindar describes in an eruption of Etna, now called 
Mon Gibello, in Sicily ; in imitation of which, as some say, Virgil wrote 
these lines : 

Tpse fed horrificis juxta tonat Aetna minis, etc' 

"After the stones and ashes with clouds of thick smoke had been 
sent up, by the impulse of the fire and windy exhalation (as you see in 
a great cauldron that boils), into the middle region of the air, overcome 
by their own natural weight, when from distance the strength that had 
received from impulse was spent, rejected likewise by the cold and un- 
friendly region, you saw them fall thick, and, by degrees, the condensed 
smoke clear away, raining ashes with water and stones of different sizes, 
according to the distance from the place; then, by degrees, with the same 
noise and smoke, it threw out stones and ashes a°;am, and so on by fits. 
This continued two days and nights, when the smoke and force of the 
fire began to abate. The fourth day, which was Thursday, at 2 o'clock, 
there was so great an eruption, that, as I was in the gulf of Puzzole, 
coming from Ischia, and not far from Misenum, I saw, in a short time, 
many columns of smoke shoot up, with the most terrible noise I ever 
heard, and, bending over the sea, came near our boat, which was four 
miles or more from the place of their birth ; and the quantity of ashes, 



PHENOMENA OF VESUVIUS 365 

stones and smoke, seemed as if they would cover the whole earth and 
sea. Stones great and small, and ashes more or less, according to the 
impulse of the fire and exhalations, began to fall, so that a great part of 
this country was covered with ashes; and many, that have seen it, say 
they reached the vale of Diana, and some parts of Calabria, which are 
more than one hundred and fifty miles from Pozzuolo. The Friday 
and Saturday nothing but a little smoke appeared ; so that many, taking 
courage, went upon the spot, and say that with the stones and ashes 
thrown up, a mountain has been formed in that valley, not less than 
three miles in circumference, and almost as high as the Monte Barbaro, 
which is near it, covering the Canettaria, the castle of Trepergule, all 
those buildings and the greatest part of the baths that were about them ; 
extending south towards the sea, north as far as the lake of Avernus, 
west to the Sudatory, and joining east to the foot of the Monte Barbaro, 
so that this place has changed its form and face in such a manner as not 
to be known again, a thing almost incredible, to those who have not seen 
it, that in so short a time so considerable a mountain could have been 
formed. On its summit there is a mouth in the form of a copu, which 
may be a quarter of a mile in circumference, though some say it is as 
large as our market place at Naples, from which there issues a constant 
smoke; and though I have seen it only at a distance, it appears very 
great. The Sunday following, which was the 6th of October, many 
people going to see this phenomenon, and some having ascended half 
the mountains, others more, about 2 o'clock there happened so sudden 
and horrid an eruption, with so great a smoke, that many of these people 
were stifled, some of which could never be found. I have been told that 
the number of the dead or lost amounted to twenty-four. From that 
time to this nothing remarkable happened ; it seems as if the eruption re- 
turned periodically, like the ague or gout." 

The following account of an ancient rain of mud resembles that from 
Mont Pelee, and there is in ancient observation much that is like the 



366 PHENOMENA OF VESUVIUS 

belching of floods of fire like vast outbursts of lightning, as in the one 
awful stroke that annihilated St. Pierre. Especially note this : 

"In an account of the formation of the Monte Nuovo di Toledo', it 
is said of an eruption in the province of Campagna that the country about 
PozzuolO', was more affected than other parts — that the earthquakes 
did not cease day or night, and that the plain between the lake of Averno, 
the Monte Barbaro, and the sea, was raised a little, and that water issued 
from cracks. At last, in the night, the earth opened near the lake and 
discovered a horrid mouth, from which were vomited furiously smoke, 
fire, stones and mud composed of ashes, making, at the time of its open- 
ing, a noise like very loud thunder ; the fire, that issued from this mouth 
went towards the walls of the unfortunate city; the smoke was partly 
black and partly white; the black was darker than darkness itself, and 
the white was like the whitest cotton; these smokes, rising in the air, 
seemed as if they would touch the vault of heaven; the stones that fol- 
lowed were, by the devouring flames, converted to pumice, the size of 
'which (of some I say) were much larger than an ox. The stones went 
about as high as a cross-bow can carry, and then fell down, sometimes 
on the edge, and sometimes into the mouth itself. It is very true that 
many of them in going up could not be seen on account of the dark 
smoke; but when they returned from the smoky heat, they showed 
plainly where they had been by their strong smell of fetid sulphur, just 
like stones that have been thrown out of a mortar and have passed 
through the smoke of inflamed gunpowder. The mud was of the color 
of ashes, and at first very liquid, then by degrees less so; and in such 
quantities that in less than twelve hours, with the help of the above 
mentioned stones, a mountain was raised of a thousand paces in height. 
Not only Pozzuolo and the neighboring country was full of this mud, 
but the city of Naples also, the beauty of whose palaces were, in a great 
measure, spoiled by it. The ashes were carried as far as Calabria by the 
force of the winds burning up in their passage the grass and high trees, 
many of which were borne down by the weight of them. An infinity 



PHENOMENA OF VESUVIUS 367 

of birds also, and numberless animals of various kinds, covered with 
this sulphurous mud, gave themselves up a prey to man/ Now this erup- 
tion lasted two nights and two days without intermission, though, it is 
true, not always with the same force, but more or less ; when it was at 
its greatest height, even at Naples you heard a noise or thundering like 
heavy artillery when two armies are engaged. The third day the erup- 
tion ceased, so that the mountain made its appearance uncovered, to the 
no small astonishment of every one who saw it. On this day, when I 
went up with many people to the top of this mountain, I saw down into 
its mouth, which was a round concavity of about a quarter of a mile in 
circumference, in the middle of which the stones that had fallen were 
boiling up, just as in a great caldron of water that boils on the fire. 
The fourth day it began "to throw up again, and the seventh much more, 
but still with less violence than the first night; it was at this time that 
many people who were unfortunately on the mountain were either sud- 
denly covered with ashes, smothered with smoke or knocked down by 
stones, burnt by the flame and left dead on the spot." 

Sir William makes the shrewd remark that if the matter which pro- 
ceeds from the volcano comes from so considerable a depth as imagined, 
that part of the mountain situated above their supposed seat of the fire 
must necessarily be destroyed or dissipated in a short time; but it is 
found that an eruption generally adds to the height of a volcano. This, 
Sir William regarded as a proof that the real seat of the fire of a volcano 
lies greatly below the general level of the country whence the mountain 
springs. The lake of Avernus is undoubtedly, according to the observa- 
tions of Sir W r illiam, produced by an explosion, and that part of the 
basis of the mountain washed by the sea remained very hot though con- 
stantly washed by waves, and, "in the cone of the mountain near this 
hot sand, a narrow of about one hundred paces in length was cut, lead- 
ing to a fountain of boiling water, which, though brackish, boils fish 
and flesh without giving them any bad quality. This place is called 
Nero's Bath, and still made use of as by the ancients. The steam rising 



368 PHENOMENA OF VESUVIUS 

from the hot fountain confined in the narrow subterraneous passage pro- 
duces a violent perspiration upon patients who sit therein, and this bath 
is reckoned a great specific in that distemper which is supposed to have 
made its appearance at Naples before it spread its contagion over other 
parts of Europe." 

As to what Virgil and other ancient authors say, that birds could 
not fly with safety over the Lake of Avernus, but fell within, Sir William 
says : "The vapor of the sulphur and other minerals must have been 
more powerful as we go nearer the time of the explosion of the volcano, 
but there are still remains of those vapors upon the lake, seldom any 
water fowl go upon it, and "when they do go there it is but for a short 
time, while all the other lakes in the neighborhood are completely covered 
with them in the winter season. Upon Mt. Vesuvius, in the year 1766, 
during an eruption, when the air was impregnated with noxious vapors, 
I have myself picked up dead birds frequently." 

Sir William found an ample field for curious observation in the island 
of Ischia. The whole of its soil is like that of Vesuvius. It is full of 
hot springs, a great bathing place. The patient begins by bathing and 
then is buried in the hot sand near the sea, but near that part of the island 
called Lacco 1 , "there is a rock of an ancient lava, forming a small cavern 
which is shut up with a door." This cavern is made use of to cool liquors 
and fruit, which it does in a short time as effectually as ice. 

In the latest of the letters of Sir William he says, "I am convinced 
that the smoke of volcanoes contains always a portion of electrical matter, 
which is manifest at the time of great eruptions, as is mentioned in my 
account of the great eruption of Vesuvius in 1767." 

Sir William says, "Such remarks as I have made on the eruptions of 
Mt. Vesuvius, during my residence in Naples, have been transmitted to 
the Royal Society, who have done them more honor than they deserved. 
Many more observations might be made upon this active volcano, by a 
person who had leisure, a previous knowledge of the natural history of 
the earth, and of chemistry, and was practicing physical experiments, 



PHENOMENA OF VESUVIUS 369 

particularly those of electricity. May not the air in countries, replete 
with sulphur, be more impregnated with electrical matter than the air 
of other soils, and may not the sort of lightning mentioned by several 
ancient authors to have fallen in a serene day and was considered an 
omen, have proceeded from such a cause? The peasants in the neigh- 
borhood of my villa, situated at the foot of Vesuvius, assured me that 
during the eruption they were more alarmed by the lightning and balls 
of fire that fell about them with a crackling sound than by lava and the 
usual attendants of an eruption. I find in all accounts of great eruptions 
mention made of this sort of lightning. Bracini in his account of the 
great eruption of Vesuvius, in 1631, says, 'The column of smoke which 
issued from the crater went over near an hundred miles of country, and 
that several men and beasts were struck dead by lightning issuing from 
this smoke.' " 

The noxious vapors are called mofete, and are set in motion by an 
eruption of Vesuvius, and then are manifest in wells in subterranean 
parts of the neighborhood. 

Sir William says, "Just before the eruption of 1767, a vapor of this 
kind broke into the King's chapel at Portici, by which a servant opening 
the door of it, was struck down. About the same time, as his Sicilian 
Majesty was shooting in a paddock near the palace, a dog dropped down, 
as was supposed, in a fit ; a boy going to take him up dropped likewise ; 
a person present, suspecting the accident to have proceeded from a mofete, 
immediately dragged them both from the spot where they lay, in doing 
which he was himself sensible of the vapor; the boy and the dog soon 
recovered. His Sicilian Majesty did me the honor of informing me 
himself of this accident soon after it had happened. I have met with 
these mofetes often, when I have been making my observations on the 
borders of Mount Vesuvius, particularly in caverns, and on the Solfa- 
terra. The vapor affects the nostrils, throat and stomach, just as the 
spirit of hartshorn, or any strong volatile salts ; and would soon prove 
fatal, if you did not immediately remove it. Under the ancient city of 



370 PHENOMENA OF VESUVIUS 

Pompeii, the mofetes are very frequent and powerful, so that the exca- 
vations that are carrying on there are often interrupted by them ; at all 
times mofetes are to be met with under ancient lavas of Vesuvius, par- 
ticularly those of the great eruption of 163 1." 

The electricity in the smoke of a volcano in violent eruption is prob- 
ably the element that caused the awful stroke of fire that destroyed the 
city of St. Pierre, with its inhabitants, and there is no question that this 
cloud of fire, swift, irresistible and fatal, a monstrous sword of flame 
that devoured the city and the people, was simply a mighty manifestation 
of electricity. 



CHAPTER XXV. 

THE CARIBBEES AND THE ISTHMIAN CANALS. 

Still the Road Around the World Is That Which Columbus 
Sought — The Trade Winds Carried Him on Broad Tropi- 
cal Lines of Circumnavigation — There Are No Conti- 
nents to Find, but There Is an Isthmus to Cut to Find 
the Broad Way, and the Caribbees Guard the Gate of the 
Central Seas. 

In "Camps in the Caribbees," written by an adventurous naturalist, 
a quarter of a century ago, there is a delightful chapter about "Grenada 
and the Grenadines." We quote : 

"In Bequia, and extending throughout the chain, is a blackbird. — a 
new species named the Quiscalus luminosus — which makes the air re- 
sound with its joyous cry: 'Bequia sweet, sweet, Bequia sweet.' The 
Caribs told me of this bird several months before I obtained it, as its 
peculiar cry had caused it to be marked by them. They had preserved a 
touching story of its connection with Carib captivity, when the Indians 
were confined in the small island of Balliceaux. 

"The island in which they were prisoners was low and dry, without 
a tree large enough to shelter them from the sun; a few miles distant, 
full in sight, was the island of Bequia, six times theirs in size, with high 
hills covered with green forests. To them it was as paradise; they 
longed for its breezy hills, sighed for the cool shade of its trees, but 
sighed in vain. Deprived of their canoes, of houses, of material for con- 
structing more than slight shelter, these poor people lay gasping beneath 
a tropic sun, gazing at the misty mountains of their native island and 
the green slopes of Bequia, without a possibility of reaching either. 
All about them the blackbirds sang praises of the distant island : 'Bequia 
sweet, sweet, Bequia sweet.' Though St. Vincent is but ten miles dis- 

371 



372 CARIBBEES AND ISTHMIAN CANALS 

tant, the blackbird is never seen there, affording but one of many 
peculiarities in the distribution of animals throughout these islands. 

"Grenada appears a cloud-line when we are off Union Island, and 
gradually emerges from the haze as we draw nearer, purple in hue, of 
course, long, but not so high as St. Vincent and the island north. 

"Union Island is black and gloomy from the east, as we coast along, 
indicating a virgin vegetation and little cultivation. Its sharp, serrated 
outline reminding one of a line of snow-drifts after a heavy midwinter 
storm when a fierce wind has swept along, leaving them combed or 
sharply cut, suggests either immense denuding, eroding floods or up- 
heaval. 

"Were these islands once connected with the mainland of either con- 
tinent? How often this question arises in one's mind as he gazes on 
these mountains peering above the sea! Did they, in the language of 
Humboldt, 'belong to the southern continent, and form a part of its 
littoral chain,' or have they been upheaved from the depths of the sea? 
The great naturalist thus refers to these islands and the various theories 
regarding their origin. 'The supposition of an oceanic irruption has been 
the source of two other hypotheses on the origin of the smaller West 
India islands. Some geologists admit that the uninterrupted chain of 
islands from Trinidad to Florida exhibits the remains of an ancient chain 
of mountains. I am rather inclined to consider them as islands heaved 
up by fire, and ranged in that regular line of which we find striking 
examples in so many volcanic hills in Mexico and in Peru.' 

"We would fain connect these mountain-peaks with a submerged 
continent, a continent that extended over the vast space now occupied by 
the Caribbean Sea, and into the Atlantic far over toward the coast of 
Africa. We are ready to believe that the 'lost Atalantis' of the ancients 
is not a myth, that it is not a 'fabled island,' but had a real existence, 
and that fhe land discovered by those Tyrian navigators who sailed be- 
yond the Pillars of Hercules and were driven by a storm many days sea- 



CARIBBEES AND ISTHMIAN CANALS 373 

ward, was part of a continent now beneath the waves — the eastern shore 
of a region which these mountains once traversed ; for — 

" 'Who knows the spot where Atalantis sank? 
Myths of a lovely drowned continent 
Homeless drift over waters blank; 
What if these reefs were her monument? 
Isthmus and cavernous cape may be 
Her mountain summits escaped from the sea.' " 

Following the earthquake of 1902 that desolated extensively two 
islands, destroyed one city totally and damaged others, the question arose 
whether the bottom of the sea had fallen more than three thousand feet, 
and it has not been settled. If the sounding for broken cables was truly 
reported its meaning is very grave, nothing less than the possible disap- 
pearance of islands. Such things have happened many times, though 
not on a large scale. 

"The world is on fire" sure enough, and there are stupendous wit- 
nesses in burning mountains, and the lesson of the prodigies of our planet 
is the more deeply impressed by the history of desolation wrought in 
other days, like that which is written with the lightnings and testified by 
thunders, the terrors of other times. 

There is a call by the people for knowledge of the theories and tra- 
ditions, the histories and the science, the wonders and appalling majesty 
of the volcano and earthquake; and there is a serious and far-reaching 
public feeling, hardly articulate yet, that we are indeed "living and hav- 
ing our being in a grand and awful time." 

Pains have been taken that the surpassing elements of the potentiality 
the worlds are dealt with cause the stars to be studied with new interest, 
and interpret the anguish of the earth's trembling agony. 

There is brought to the front, and drawn with appropriate colors, the 
figures of the actors who have made history in the region of the Lesser 
Antilles, First is the august Columbus on his latest trans-Atlantic vov- 



374 CARIBBEES AND ISTHMIAN CANALS 

ages. The final destruction of the Caribs is announced. The race of 
men on the islands when civilization found them had a few thousand 
representatives until the recent eruptions not only buried a city but 
extinguished a race. 

Frightful as is the desolation wrought in the Caribbean Islands by 
their volcanoes, we must not forget that they have been important in our 
national affairs, and in spite of the calamities now so conspicuous, will 
hereafter prove more significant in the world's developments, which are 
moving with mighty strides, than they ever have been. 

One of the most influential of the founders of our national govern- 
ment, and he the one who gave it the most decisive aid given, with the 
exception of George Washington and John Marshall, to make it a nation, 
was Alexander Hamilton. If it had not been for his foresight and gen- 
ius for organization, there is a question whether we, the people of the 
United States, would to-day have bordered on the Pacific ocean, pos- 
sessed the greater archipelagoes of the greater ocean, and the most com- 
manding position held by any nation to control the commerce and the 
markets westward, from America to Asia. We have been triumphantly 
spared thus far from the policy of littleness, in which some of our poli- 
ticians are playing possum and some playing monkey, while the people 
at large go on and grow in their grand old way, expanding in territory, 
and yet gaining constantly and consistently in the solidity that is unity 
at home, and in wholesome reputation and commanding attitude abroad. 

There were two men of political faculty of the highest order, who 
took great part in our revolutionary war, and the formation of our gov- 
ernment on principles so broad and free and yet strong, and bound to- 
gether in States but one people; and, of course, the two men were op- 
posed, and each had abounding capacity for public services of creative 
power. 

Thomas Jefferson, of Virginia, and Alexander Hamilton, from the 
Caribbean Islands, born on Nevis, are the men. Hamilton's mind, na- 
tive of a little island as he was, flashed over the continent, and his sagacity 



CABIBBEES AND ISTHMIAN CANALS 375 

demanded the strength in the Departments of the Government to expand 
and sustain itself, to annex all we could grasp of the continent and the 
islands of the sea. Jefferson bought the mouths of the Mississippi and 
the land west to the Pacific. Even now the New England senators are 
unanimous for the preservation of the Louisiana purchase, and Senator 
Hoar employs his customary felicity of expression when he says of Jef- 
ferson : "He comes down to us with the Declaration of Independence 
in one hand and the Louisiana Purchase in the other." Andrew Jack- 
son's personal power achieved what he called the reannexation of Texas, 
and he settled all questions of doubt about our title to the land at the 
mouth of the Mississippi, without consulting the alleged people there- 
about then or in a subsequent generation. We paid money for it, and 
burnt powder for it, from Mexico all the way to Florida. 

This is the time to say that ultimately the United States should be 
sovereign over all the West Indies, and no part of that greatest of archi- 
pelagoes is of more value to us, and more naturally and inevitably be- 
longs to us, than the whole string of the Caribbean Pearl Islands. There 
is no application possible of the Monroe Doctrine to the Philippines for 
they are not in the American hemisphere. But this hemisphere has a 
Monroe Doctrine, and a Mediterranean ocean, too, as surely as there is 
one nearly surrounded by Europe, Asia and Africa. We of the North 
American continent are dominant and paramount here, as Europe is 
there. Our United States will, in a brief time in the life of a Nation, be 
equal in population and potency, as Europe would be if one, and there is 
not a rock with a tree on it that sticks out of the waves of the American 
(that should be called) the Columbian, Mediterranean, that should not 
belong to us. 

We shall not gather in all these islands immediately. Even after 
Cuba was conquered by us, we consented that her people might go out of 
our iron-bound Union until the Cubans would be glad to contract on 
our terms to be sheltered under our wings. Cuba is more readily sub- 
jected to the magnetism of Union with us than any other island we have 



876 CARIBBEES AND ISTHMIAN CANALS 

not; and that is something that can be felt across the narrow waters. 
Cuba is one, and has one people speaking one language, and may be 
dealt with as an organized community. It is different in a thousand 
islands, between which there is little communication — no communion 
outside a few scraps of land having special and yet scanty acquaintance, 
where there are many languages and a hundred dialects. Cuba can ex- 
press her will to be with us, when she wants to do so, and she and we 
will listen to reason. 

The Windward Islands, the Leeward Islands, the Pearl Islands, the 
Lesser Antilles, the Caribbees, are the sentinels across the vast mouth 
of the American Mediterranean, from Porto Rico to South America. It 
was along that line the fleets of England, France and Spain were accus- 
tomed to fight, when the western powers of Europe were contesting their 
natural, royal and divine rights to grasp that archipelago empire — the 
West Indies. The Caribbees are now the points of advantage to have 
and to hold, in view of that which is to be as well as to what has been. 
It is to this country that the attraction of gravitation draws the Ameri- 
can islands, and when we have constructed the canal between the Atlan- 
tic and the Pacific — whether the route of it is to be that of Panama or 
Nicaragua — and in a great matter at least the better road is the shorter 
distance — there will be a commercial route around the world in the trop- 
ics. The golden stream will run both ways, with and against the sun, 
through the two inter-ocean canals — Suez and Darien. 

It was obvious at once to the people aware of what is going on in 
the world, when the Carib volcanoes boomed, that their formidable 
explosions and amazing eruptions must and should affect the Isthmian 
Canal question. That fact alone shows the abiding interest of the in- 
sistent situation. The nations of Europe are interested in the extension, 
organization and cultivation of their colonies. Those who have the 
largest area of possessions that are not contiguous — the scraps of distant 
continents and islands remote, especially in the tropics — are the most 
eager of the expounders and the exemplars of expansion. The only 



CABIBBEES AND ISTHMIAN CANALS 37? 

country in which there is any misgiving that appears prominently in 
public discussion about the pursuit of this policy is our own. 

There are two Mediterranean seas — one in the Eastern and one in 
the Western hemisphere. That situated between Europe and Africa 
and bounding Central Asia on the west from Egypt to the Hellespont is 
the ocean of the ancients whose history is most familiar to us — the seat 
of the sea power of the earlier empires — transpierced in the center by the 
Italian peninsula, with the Island of Sicily, for which the Greeks, Car- 
thaginians and Romans fought, until Rome became the master of the 
world that surrounded the sea that was in the middle of the earth- 
Africa seems to hang to Asia by a narrow neck of land, and swing in the 
abyss of the Southern Oceans — a vast river, the Nile, flowing north 
from South Africa to the historic Mediterranean, the other great chan- 
nels of African drainage pouring their floods into the Atlantic. Through 
the Isthmus of Suez is excavated the most famous of canals, and it has 
become the key to the British Empire, committed now to hold Egypt as 
long as she governs India, and cares for her commerce in Asiatic waters. 
We, the people of the United States, have a deeper interest in the haunts 
of the ancients than in other days, when we studied the voyages of our 
regiments by way of Gibraltar and the Suez Canal en route in our troop- 
ships for Manila. The canal between Africa and Asia has become a 
highroad for our ships and troops from Atlantic shores to our new pos- 
sessions on the other side of the world. The Gulf of Mexico, with the 
Caribbean Sea, is the American Mediterranean, North America on the 
north, and South America on the south, the peninsulas of Florida and 
Yucutan with the Island of Cuba separating the huge Gulf from the 
Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea. The correspondence between 
the two Mediterranean seas, that of the old world, from which Colum- 
bus came and that of the new he discovered, is in many respects remark- 
able. No map of the world fails to make conspicuous the two seas that 
are central to the old and the new. South America seems suspended 
like a prodigious pendulum, as we turn a model of the globe, by the 



378 CABIBBEES AND ISTHMIAN CANALS 

Isthmus of Darien, to North America, whose gigantic arctic region is 
fixed in eternal ice ; and the construction of a canal uniting the American 
Mediterranean with the Pacific, as that of Suez with the old Mediter- 
ranean by way of the Red Sea with the Indian Ocean, and that, by the 
Sea of China, with the Pacific, has ceased to be of dreams like those of 
flying to the moon, and is a colossal enterprise, not only an ultimate 
hope, but an improvement certain of execution at no very distant day. 
There is capital and labor to do it, and the first difficulty is the obstinate 
and momentous one of the choice of routes. There are rival plans, the 
Panama and the Nicaragua. The latter has absorbed the greater atten- 
tion in America, the former in Europe. It is probable that sooner than 
would be readily conjectured, both will be completed and in competition 
until they find it reasonable and profitable to adopt the railroad trunk- 
line transcontinental policy, fixing rates to improve the standing of the 
stock, representing tremendous investments. Once it was a wonder that 
there should be a railroad across the continent of North America. Now 
the average citizen does not know the number of lines that bind our 
dominions in bonds of steel, and span our Rocky Mountains and alkali 
plains with such ease of transfer that we cease to compute them as ele- 
vations or spaces, save as in distance measured by time, the freight rates 
and car fare. 

If the Isthmus of Darien had been a sandy plain like that of Suez, 
it would have been cut through by a ship canal long ago, and the thor- 
oughfare undoubtedly the property of England, possibly with France 
for a partner, but the English would have had the majority interest in 
navigation, the greater weight of capital, the higher appreciation of 
commerce, and the deeper and keener sense of possession. 

The world heard, along with the measurements of the rugged strip 
of rocks that is the chief obstruction of the circumnavigation of the 
earth in the tropics, of the peaks of Darien, from which Balboa beheld 
the broader of the oceans. The discovery of the Pacific was the opening 
of the most wonderful waste of waters in the world, and the imagination 




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CAEIBBEES AND ISTHMIAN CANALS 381 

of adventurers soon peopled this great deep with surpassing visions of 
splendor, and there have been four centuries of blended history and com- 
merce. 

D. C. Rodrigues, LL. B., in a work on the Panama Canal — Chas. 
Scribner & Sons, 1885 — devoted a chapter chiefly to the first centuries 
of the history of the American isthmus. As Rodrigues wrote, we quote 
"The Panama Canal," pages 5-17: 

"The idea of piercing the isthmus between the two Americas is al- 
most contemporaneous with the first knowledge of the isthmus itself. 
The early navigators could not help noticing how near to each other were 
the two oceans, and how comparatively easy would be (they thought) 
the cutting of a canal through that narrow strip of land between them. 
The celebrated Portuguese navigator, Antonio Galvao, as early as 1550, 
wrote an essay on the subject, wherein he suggested four different lines, 
one of which was through the lake of Nicaragua, and the other by the 
Isthmus of Panama. Lopez Gomara, the Spanish historian, mentions 
in 155 1 the four routes of which he very likely learned from the mono- 
graph of Galvao. 

"The idea, however, remained dormant for fully two centuries. One 
of the earliest exploits of Nelson was the. attack on Port San Juan in 
1779, with the ulterior purpose, it appears, of controlling the river and 
lake communications between the two oceans, of which the fort was sup- 
posed to be the best debouche. Fever, however, decimated his crew, 
and he returned to England. In the meantime Charles III. of Spain 
sent out the really first exploring expedition under Manuel Galistro, in 
1780; but the subsequent political complications in the European politics 
diverted attention from his project. In the beginning of our century, 
Humboldt, who studied on the spot the problem of piercing the isthmus, 
strongly endorsed its feasibility, but all Europe was then, and remained 
for many years, absorbed in her own politics." 

It is apparent to the world that the Caribbean Islands maintain their 
position for the exchange of commerce, in this country, as they did one, 



382 CARIBBEES AND ISTHMIAN CANALS 

two and three hundred years ago, as points of commanding advantage 
for conquest. They are as well placed for peace as for war. Once the 
foes of Spain lurked in them looking for the ships bearing the spoils of 
the New World. Now they are in the route of steamers circumnavigat- 
ing the globe, as they were when the trade winds were the motive power 
for sailing into sunsets. 



CHAPTER XXVI. 

THE DARIEN ISTHMIAN CANAL HISTORY. 

The Material Question Not the Route, but the Achievement — - 
Supreme Advantages It Would Give the United States — It 
Would Unite the Oceans — Salient Points of a Historical 
Discussion — The Time to Act Is Now. 

We of the United States do not need to be so very exclusive as to 
the construction of the Isthmian Canal, that owing to our position must 
fall under our jurisdiction. The peculiar strength we have in the world, 
now that we have become a world power and the fact is recognized in 
some way by all the nations, is, first, we confront Europe across the 
Atlantic, and have more ocean front in the waters of the north temper- 
ate zone looking eastward than all the powers of Europe, more coast 
line and great cities on the Atlantic than all Europe possesses; that is, 
we exceed England, France and Spain together. Crossing the continent, 
we have more Pacific coast line in the waters that are not annually locked 
with ice than any other nation, with the exception of inert China, and 
we have three great archipelagoes, the Aleutian in the north, the Philip- 
pines in the far west, and the Hawaiian in the east center of the great 
ocean, and no other nation is in such a commanding attitude on the 
Pacific as ourselves. We have advantages on both our ocean fronts that 
are incomparable. The earliest very ambitious idea, when we became a 
nation and the people studied their splendid inheritance, was that we 
must become possessed of the mouths of the Mississippi, and of both 
banks of the Mississippi from source to mouth ; and as much west to the 
Rocky Mountains and the Pacific as we could annex by purchase and 
conquest. Hence the Louisiana purchase. We allowed Texas to get 
away, but recovered the France of America. We have recently expelled 

383 



3S4 DAEIEN ISTHMIAN CANAL HISTORY 

Spain from the West Indies, taken Porto Rico for our own, assisted in 
setting Cuba up as independent, that she may educate herself by follow- 
ing our example, so as in good time to form with us a more perfect 
union. We have also an option on the Danish islands ; and the volcanoes 
of the Lesser Antilles should teach us, so the scientists say, that those 
islands are barriers that court the sediment of our great rivers that pour 
into the Gulf, so that we have them surrounded by our rich earth, until 
there are cracks in the bottom of the sea that turn loose the inner fires. 

This would seem to show that it is not westward alone that we have 
an interest in the course of empire. We have on the coast of the Ameri- 
can Mediterranean the immense State of Texas and that of Louisiana, 
and then come in order the cotton states of Mississippi and Alabama 
with their tributary streams, and the western section of Florida, after 
which comes the whole peninsula of Florida and her Keys, and we have 
added rights and privileges of naval accommodation in Cuba. So that 
we exceed all nations in our position north and east of the Gulf. We 
have the land and the islands giving supremacy to our influence over 
the Atlantic, Pacific, the Mexican and Caribbean Seas and the great 
northern lakes. If there is a center of the earth more plainly marked 
on the maps than any other it is the part of North America that is our 
basis of expansion. 

We must bring our oceans and seas together by an Isthmian Canal. 
That is the great and only thing needful to give expression to our nation 
as the paramount factor of the hemisphere. 

We ought to have personages with the potentiality to overcome the 
tardiness of negotiations — a congress capable of putting on the finishing 
touches in fashioning our "Empire of Liberty" (the phrase of the au- 
thor of the Declaration of Independence). England would have missed 
her opportunity of a century if Disraeli had not had the courageous 
statesmanship to buy the shares of stock in the Suez Canal just in time. 
The splendid stroke of fortune for England that Disraeli made is that 
described by Mr. Milner, the highest authority on the subject: 



DARIEN ISTHMIAN CANAL HISTORY 385 

"We bought for four million pounds Egypt's interest in the Suez 
Canal, which, had she only clung to it, would soon have become so fer- 
tile a source of income to her. What we bought for four million pounds 
will in another year be worth something near twenty million pounds. 

"In addition to the shares, England required Egypt to contract a 
wholly new obligation. A terminable annuity of two hundred thousand 
pounds a year to be paid by Egypt to England was created in 1876 to 
expire in 1894. The shares belonged to Egypt, not to Ishmain. They 
were an asset of the Government, and would never have passed to Tew- 
fik as his private property or that of his brothers had Ismael been suc- 
ceeded by Prince Halim. The ruler of the day contributed from first to 
last more than all the sums borrowed or subscribed by share-holders in 
Europe. These advances were made by the Egyptian treasury, and there 
can be no doubt that the shares belonged to the Egyptian Government 
and not to any ruler of Egypt. The shares will be worth in 1894, at 
present prices, £18,543,210. The transaction of 1876 belongs to a class 
against which a court of equity has never failed to afford relief. 

"On the one side is the British treasury, claiming to have made 
£18,500,000 without the expenditure of a farthing. On the other side 
are all those who are interested in Egypt, including British taxpayers 
who have purchased Egyptian securities. If it is even possible that the 
opinion might be expressed by the judicial and financial advisers to His 
Highness the Khedive, or by the international tribunals, that Great Brit- 
ain never acquired the ownership of the Suez Canal shares in fee simple 
absolute, because they were the property of the inhabitants of Egypt, 
created by their labor, subject to the lien of the creditors of Egypt and 
those of the Ottoman Empire ; that they were pledged and not sold by a 
Khedive dismissed for malversation in office at the instance of England 
itself; that they had been redeemed by the annual payment of £200,000,- 
000 a year, raised sometimes out of taxes crueliy burdensome, sometimes 
by new imposts and fresh loans, would it not be more discreet to begin 



386 DAKIEN ISTHMIAN CANAL HISTORY 

as speedily as possible to show a disposition to treat this fund as a source 
out of which mutual benefits might be obtained?" 

There is no such speculation awaiting us, but the evidence of current 
history is all one way, that the situation offers us ample security for the 
investment, whatever it is. There have been for hundreds of years dis- 
cussions as to the better route for the Canal that is to give directness to 
the comparatively easy commercial navigation of the globe. We have 
no purpose of partisanship in this contention. 

Commerce has employed the Panama route for over fifty years. The 
conditions of traffic are established and well known. 

The Panama route constitutes a part of the coast line of the United 
States, connecting its Atlantic and Pacific coasts. Its terminal cities — 
Colon, Panama — are ancient and firmly established. Upon the interme- 
diate line thirty railroad stations, serving the neighboring villages and 
settlements, give character to the route. It is not a marshy jungle. It 
is a settled country, and the line has been made readily accessible and 
habitable by fifty years' traffic, development and settlement. 

Regular lines of steamers, from Germany, England, France, New 
York, Belgium, Spain and Italy, on the Atlantic side, and San Fran- 
cisco and all Central and South American and Mexican ports, on the 
Pacific side, have for over fifty years regularly employed this route. 



CHAPTER XXVII. 

THE ISTHMIAN CANAL QUESTIONS. 

The Competition Between the Panama and Nicaraguan Routes 
— Their Comparative Length and Situation — The Splen- 
did Story of the Suez Canal — All the Nations of the 
Earth Want the American Isthmian Canal. 

The Chagres River- has been represented for and against the Panama 
route. The locality of the canal is in considerable part in the valley of 
the Chagres, which is not a strong stream in dry times, but "subject 
sometimes to sudden and enormous freshets." The flow of the river 
cannot be direct into the canal, and must be regulated by dams creating 
artificial lakes. The dam at Bohio at the last group of locks on the At- 
lantic side will create a lake extending a distance of 13 miles to Obispo, 
where the canal will leave the river. The lake formed by the Bohio dam 
will cover an area of 21.5 square miles. Its lowest level is fixed at 52.5 
feet, its normal level at 55.75 feet, and its highest level at 65.5 feet above 
mean tide. It will be revetted with stone, with a foundation bed of clay 
and abutting against rock banks. The extreme length of crest will be 
1,286 feet ; the extreme height above the bed of the river will be 75.5 feet, 
and above the lowest point of the foundation 93.5 feet. 

The other dam is located on the upper Chagres 91-3 miles from the 
canal, and the reservoir will cover 10 square miles. Both dams can ac- 
cumulate a storage of 66,000,000,000 gallons. It is considered that the 
Chagres River question is thus disposed of, and that not only is it ren- 
dered harmless, but as General Abbott says, "It may safely be affirmed 
that the Chagres River is no longer an element of danger, but is rather 
a useful friend, whose assistance will be of great value to the canal in its 
operation," 

387 



388 ISTHMIAN CANAL QUESTIONS 

The original purpose of the old company was to build a canal without 
locks, freely open from ocean to ocean, but after several years of work 
the plan was abandoned, owing to the enormous excavations necessary 
to cut through the central mass of the mountains (the Culebra) and the 
difficulty and expense of properly taking care of-the occasional torrential 
flow of the River Chagres. 

The total length of the canal contemplated in the work done is 
46 2-10 miles, including dredging to deep water in the Pacific. The new 
company acquired in October, 1894, the canal works, plant, machinery, 
concessions, stocks and other assets of every description of the old com- 
pany and realized at the outset that the most judicious way to employ 
its capital was to enter into an entirely new study of the engineering 
features of the undertaking, and also to begin, on a substantial scale, such 
an amount of work as would set at rest beyond question all doubts as 
to the quality of materials to be encountered (not only on the surface but 
also in the underground strata which it was expected to reach in all 
excavations), while at the same time constructing the canal itself. 

The conclusions of the new company upon organization were : 

First — That the work actually accomplished by the old company in 
the isthmus was very large, substantial and available. 

Second — That notwithstanding an interregnum of four years, the 
work previously accomplished was in a satisfactory condition. 

Third — That the locations occupied, and the plant on the isthmus, 
had been well cared for by the receiver, and were sufficient for the con- 
tinuation and accomplishment of the work without extensive and expen- 
sive preparation. 

Fourth — That the climatic dangers, the difficulties of the undertak- 
ing, and the cost necessary for its accomplishment had been grossly 
exaggerated. 

It was therefore resolved to reorganize the old company, under new 
management and new conditions. 

On the one hand the work was to be renewed and continued. 



ISTHMIAN CANAL QUESTIONS 389 

On the other hand to ascertain, by investigation and the widest expe- 
rience, whether the construction of the canal could be completed under 
reasonable conditions of time and money. 

The conclusion is that the completed surveys and work accomplished 
in the Isthmus of Panama undeniably demonstrates that Mr. De Lesseps' 
ideal is now practically susceptible of realization; but Mr. De Lesseps 
was entirely mistaken concerning the conditions of execution in the first 
attempt he made. 

The Congress of 1879 calculated that the time for the finishing of 
the canal would be at least twelve years, and it fixed the probable expense 
of the undertaking at $214,000,000. Supposing that the interest on cap- 
ital during construction amounted to $26,000,000, there would be a total 
expenditure of $240,000,000. 

Mr. De Lesseps, in the beginning of the year 1880, went to the Isth- 
mus of Panama with a company of engineers for the purpose of complet- 
ing the surveys which had been submitted the preceding year to the In- 
ternational Congress. The estimate of the construction work proper au- 
thorized by this Commission amounted to $166,800,000. 

At the same time this Commission expressed the opinion that with 
good and judicious organization the work might be concluded in eight 
years. Mr. De Lesseps believed it to be possible to reduce this estimate 
of expenditures. 

One of the discussions of the people that has accompanied the 
thoughtful attention of mankind to the various schemes for the practical 
removal of the barrier between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans unbroken 
north of the Straits of Magellan — well described as an enormous canal 
provided by natural causes — is the comparative height of the water in 
the two oceans that are so near and yet so far, at the isthmus, and this 
mysterious matter is treated according to the popular taste in "Sport 
Travel and Adventure in Newfoundland and the West Indies," by Capt. 
W. R. Kennedy, R. N. ; William Blackwood & Sons, Edinburgh and 
London, as follows: 



390 ISTHMIAN CANAL QUESTIONS 

"This opens the question as to ichat effect the Panama Canal zeiU 
have upon the tides and currents of the Caribbean Sea. One would nat- 
urally suppose that the water in the canal would flow continually from 
east to west, or from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean, on account of the 
constant set of the current and the prevailing winds being from that 
direction. The difference in the height of the tide at Colon and Panama 
is very remarkable. At the former place the rise and fall of the tide is 
only three feet : whereas at Panama the difference between high and low 
water mark is. as far as I remember, nearly twenty. The tide is nine 
hours later at Colon than it is at Panama, so that when it is high or low 
water at Panama it is half-tide at Colon. 

"As a matter of fact. I am inclined to think that in the event of what 
is called a tide-level being cut through the isthmus — that is. a canal 
without locks, open to the ocean at either end — there would be no con- 
tinuous stream of water flowing through the canal in any one direction, 
but the result would probably be that the tides would flow in from either 
end. meet in the middle and flow back again, as may be seen in the 
Straits of Magellan, which, after all. is but a huge canal of Nature's own 
construction. 

"It is quite possible that the rush of water may be so great as to 
seriously interfere with the passage of ships entering the canal, in which 
case it will be necessary to form a lock at the Panama end. It may even 
be necessary, in view of the difference in the depth of the harbors at 
either end, to slope the bottom of the canal from Colon downwards to 
Panama. This, according to Max Adler's laughable story, would have 
the effect of causing the water to flow downhill, thereby draining the 
Atlantic into the Pacific Ocean ! 

"But. joking apart, the tendency of the water must be to rind its own 
level, and if it can be shown that the mean level of the two oceans is not 
identical, there must be a constant flow in the direction of the lowest 
level. 

"Now, it is not at all certain that the mean level of the Pacific and 



ISTHMIAN CANAL QUESTIONS 391 

Atlantic oceans is the same; and it is quite possible that, owing to the 
rotation of the earth on its axis, and the formation of the land in the 
neighborhood of the isthmus, the water may be piled up on the Atlantic 
side and drawn away from the Pacific side. A glance at the map will 
show what I mean. And we all know how a strong breeze will keep a 
river back, or, if in the same direction as the flow of the river, will 
drive it out of a lock and thus raise the river; so this theory may not 
be so absurd after all. I leave it to those learned in such matters. 

"There is another view of the case which never struck me till now. 
Geologists are of the opinion that at one time the Isthmus of Panama 
was submerged, and South America an island. They are led to this con- 
clusion by the totally different class of animals to be found in South and 
North America. At that time the Gulf stream which now warms our 
shores must have flowed westward through this channel, and the British 
Isles were a frozen zone unsuited for human habitation. Cut through 
the isthmus, and the warm waters of the Gulf stream may to a very 
limited extent be deflected in the direction of their former course. The 
effect would be probably no more than drawing off a kettle of water 
from the river Tweed, and the immediate effect on our climate be im- 
perceptible. It would be the most gross injustice for the world to for- 
get that Count Ferdinand De Lesseps, though failing in his Panama 
Canal endeavor, must forever be counted as one of the great men of his 
generation. He realized one dream. It was beyond mortal strength that 
one man, however gifted and brave, should win a double immortality 
in constructing canals through the sands of Suez and the rocks of 
Darien. He could not accomplish the impossible. That which is won- 
derful is the gigantic work that was done before it was established that 
there was a formidable margin between the estimates covered by re- 
sources and the remainder. The stupendous proportions of the task are 
now fully before the world, and the surprise is, turning from the exag- 
geration of the failure of De Lesseps, to discover the immensity which 
has been achieved. 



392 ISTHMIAN CANAL QUESTIONS 

These are the points of the Panama Canal : 

1. - Length, 46 miles. 

2. Time of transit of ships less than one day. 

3. Of the 46 miles of length there are 15 miles on the Atlantic 
side, and y)A. miles on the Pacific (about one-half the entire distance), 
will be at sea level. 

The official accounts and reports of experts, on the files of the Court 
in France, in the receivership proceedings, show that the expenditures 
actually made by the old company upon the isthmus amounted to $156,- 
400,000, and that of this sum the cost of excavation and embankment, 
proper, amounted to $88,600,000. 

The claim of the Panama company is, that two-fifths of the work is 
done. 

The story of the undertaking of the reopening of the Suez Canal 
by De Lesseps is as follows : 

One morning in the month of August, 1854, a French gentleman 
was engaged in superintending some masons who were at work adding 
a story to his house at La Chenaie — a house that had once been occupied 
by the famous Agnes Sorel. 

On that morning of August, 1854, when engaged with the masons, 
and standing on the roof of Agnes Sorel's house, the post arrived, and 
the letters were handed up from workman to workman until they reached 
the proprietor. In one of the newspapers he read the news of the death 
of Abbas Pasha, and of the accession of Mohammed Said, a patron and 
friend of the old Egypt days. They had been joined on affectionate and 
confidential terms. Instantly the scheme was born again in his busy 
soul, and his teeming brain saw the most momentous result from the 
change of authority. In a moment he had hurried down the ladder and 
was writing congratulations and a proposal to hurry to Egypt and renew 
their acquaintance. In a few weeks came the answer, and the ardent 
projector had written joyfully to his old friend, the Dutch Consul, that 
he would be on his way in November. Expressing the delight he would 



^> 



ISTHMIAN CANAL QUESTIONS 393 

have in meeting him again, "in our old land in Egypt," but "there was 
not to be so much as a whisper to anyone of the scheme for piercing the 
isthmus.'' On the 7th of November he landed at Alexandria, and was 
received with the greatest welcome by the new ruler. The Viceroy was 
on the point of starting on a sort of military promenade to Cairo. It 
was when they had halted on their march, on a fine evening, the 15th, 
that he at last saw the opportunity. He felt, as he confessed, that all 
depended on the way the matter was put before the prince, and. that he 
must succeed in inspiring him with some of his own enthusiasm. He 
accordingly proceeded to unfold his plan, which he did in a broad 
fashion, without insisting too much on petty details. The easterner 
listened calmly to the end, made some difficulties, hear,d the answers, and 
then addressed his eager listener in these words : 

"I am satisfied, and I accept your scheme. We will settle all the 
details during our journey. But understand that it is settled, and you 
may count upon me." This was virtually the "concession" of the great 
canal. M. de Lesseps started out with the proposition that he could 
join the two seas at an expense of 200,000,000 francs. The canal cost 
the subscribers to its stock that amount. In addition it received from 
the Khedive 457,457,306 francs. 

Matters do not appear to have progressed very rapidly. The com- 
pany had undertaken a great work, and, to perfect it, required a great 
deal of money. The money was not forthcoming. Subscriptions to the 
stock were slow. Capitalists were not eager to invest in such an under- 
taking. As usual, there were many croakers abroad. Every scheme 
of this sort finds many enemies. In England, particularly, it was looked 
upon with great disfavor, just as canals in that country were pronounced 
impracticable when they were first projected; in the United States, just 
2 s railroads were, before they were built. Many people believed that 
the level of the Red Sea was so far below the level of the Mediterranean 
that, the canal being dug, all the water of the latter would pour through 
it, leaving its bed dry. On the other hand, there were others who 



394 ISTHMIAN CANAL QUESTIONS 

thought the level of the Mediterranean so far below the level of the Red 
Sea that all the waters of the Indian Ocean would pour into it and flood 
a great portion of the continent of Europe. Capitalists were not eager 
to invest in an undertaking which threatened so great a disaster. 

Senator Morgan of Alabama has been the foremost man of the 
Senate in his devotion to the Isthmian Canal, with a preference for the 
Nicaragua route. He is convincing in his perpetual urgency for canal 
work to be done. There is one great point favorable to the Panama 
Canal. It is but forty-three miles long, not counting the Pacific dredg- 
ing to deep water. The Nicaragua Canal is 175 miles long. Difference 
in favor of Panama over 125 miles. Nothing will ever be quite satisfac- 
tory but the short line without locks. The modern machinery with the 
capital and labor of the world behind it will remove mountains. Senator 
Morgan contends that more tonnage would pass through the Nicaragua 
than through the Panama Canal. The Senator says : 

"London, as the common point of distribution, will therefore 
be cheaper than the present system. The Nicaragua Canal will thus be 
given the preference over the Suez Canal by merchants and navigators. 
When we add to this the traffic that will pass in ships between the eastern 
and western coasts of the American hemisphere, the amount of tonnage 
that will pass through the Nicaraguan Canal must be largely in excess 
of that which will find it way through the Suez Canal." 

"The ship's journey around the Horn" is a distress to commerce that 
the civilization of the age requires to be removed, and the route through 
Nicaragua is the only possible remedy for this universal evil. 

"It is not too much to say that this condition, so easy to be remedied, 
will be a reproach to the men of this age if some active and decided 
movement is not made to relieve against it. To point out the dangers, 
hardships, loss of time, and the destruction of life and property incident 
to this only waterway connecting the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, which 
must be navigated in the roughest seas and the most inhospitable climate 
in all the world, is only to repeat the experience of seafaring men for 



ISTHMIAN CANAL QUESTIONS §95 

ages past, and to evoke a prayer for them that the United States will 
do its obvious duty toward them." 

The Senator referred to the posts of the British on the North Pacific 
and in the Bermudas and at Halifax, and said: 

"From these the most powerful ships of war can assail our harbors, 
and retire to cover in case of necessity, while the United States must 
double Cape Horn in sending assistance from our eastern to our western 
coast. 

"With the canal at our command we need not have two fleets to pro- 
tect our coasts, as we are now compelled to do, at a cost already exces- 
sive and greatly to be increased. Without the canal we are, relatively, 
in a situation of deplorable weakness." 

The most interesting part of the able and venerable Senator's report 
is his comparison of the Nicaragua and Suez canals. We quote him on 
this subject : 

"When private enterprise in Southern Europe first addressed itself 
to the task of opening a sea level through the Isthmus of Suez, there 
was no lesson of experience to guide the movement or to assure its suc- 
cess. After a time the Khedive of Egypt, without the firman of his 
suzerian, the Sultan of Turkey, supported the undertaking, and put 
heavy burdens on his people. 

"This wise and heroic decree of the ruler of a government nearly 
relapsed into barbarism secured the Suez Canal and should have secured 
the inviolable independence of his country. But the value of the canal 
to commercial and political aspirations for dominion attracted the 
cupidity of Great Britain and has drawn that great and costly work and 
the independence of Egypt into the grasp of that Empire. 

"If it shall result, from our indifference or dread of expansion in the 
direction of national duty and of self-preservation, that Great Britain 
or any other European power shall get the control of the concession that 
we have, so far, refused, the result is even now plainly manifest, that 
the Central American States will repeat the experience of Egypt. 



396 ISTHMIAN CANAL QUESTIONS 

"Then we shall have our country broken in its coast line of trade 
and defenses, by a European power, not in violation of the Monroe doc- 
trine, but this will be done in the name of these republics on and near 
the line of the canal. 

"The Suez Canal is eighty-seven miles long, sixty-six of which are 
actual canal, the other twenty-one miles being lake navigation. The 
canal and its appurtenances were completed on or about the first of 
January, 1870, and cost about $91,000,000. Since that time there have 
been expended for betterments and improvements, including the deepen- 
ing of the canal, about $24,000,000 more; bringing the total cost of 
the canal up to about $115,000,000. The canal was originally twenty- 
six feet deep. Its present depth is twenty-eight feet. The canal to-day 
is capitalized at about $90,500,000 in stock and obligations. The dif- 
ference between the cost and its present capitalization in stock and bonds 
was made up by receipts from various sources applied to construction 
and improvement. It is commonly reported that the actual cost of con- 
struction did not exceed $50,000,000." 

In 1 89 1 the gross receipts of the Suez Canal were $83,421,504, and 
the actual net revenues of the company for a series of years past has 
been upwards of $12,000,000 annually. The net profits in 1892 were 
41,728,543 francs, or about $8,345,000, and the dividends declared for 
said year were 19.8 per cent, including the taxes retained for the sinking 
fund. 

The shares of the company, originally issued at 500 francs each, are 
quoted on the Paris Bourse at 2,692.50 francs. The shares of the Suez 
Canal held by the English Government and purchased for £4,000,000 
are worth to-day over £19,000,000 in the open market. 

The business of 1892 and 1893 suffered from the general commercial 
depression throughout the world, and was lighter than that done in 
1 89 1. In the said last mentioned year the net profits were 49,910,892 
francs, or about $9,800,000, and the dividends declared on the stock that 
year amounted to 22.4 per cent. 



ISTHMIAN CANAL QUESTIONS 399 

The effect of the Suez Canal upon the commerce of the world is 
apparent from the fact that whereas in 1870, the first full year of its 
operation, there passed through the canal 486 vessels, registering 436,- 
600 tons, the number of vessels passing in 1891 was 4,207, registering 
8,700,000 tons. The most significant fact in this enormous increase is 
that the average size of the vessels using the canal in 1870 was but little 
over 1,300 register, while in 1891 it had increased to over 2,090 tons, 
and in 1892 to 2,200 tons. 

''The outside limit of the cost of the Xicaraguan Canal is $100,000,- 
000, but the committee assume, in correspondence with the estimates 
that have been so carefully made and revised, that the cost will not 
exceed $70,000,000, and that, if it should, there will be a fund in the 
treasury of the company from the sales of stock remaining undisposed of 
equal to $16,000,000, in all $86,000,000. This stock will go to par as 
soon as the construction of the canal is resumed, if not as soon as Con- 
gress has provided for the guarantee of the bonds of the company." 

The objections to the project that have been so strenuously urged 
upon Congress are strongly stated by Senator Pettigrew, and we quote 
him : 

"One hundred and fifteen million dollars will not build this canal. 
In my opinion $215,000,000 will not build it. 

"But when it is built, if constructed by the United States alone, we 
must either make it a neutral canal, unfortified, to be used by all the 
nations of the world, or else we must fortify it at an expense of hundreds 
of millions more, and we must guard this 176 miles of canal in order to 
prevent its destruction, for its great embankments can be destroyed by 
a single person in a few hours of time with modern explosives. If it is 
not guarded, or if it is not fortified, our fleet, having reached Lake 
Nicaragua, could be imprisoned by the efforts of one man at each end 
of the canal along these enormous embankments seventy feet in height. 
Therefore I believe it is wise that Ave should delay the disposition of this 
matter until this whole question can be investigated. 



400 ISTHMIAN CANAL QUESTIONS 

"Further than that, I believe it would be wiser for the United States 
to join with the other nations of the world and complete the canal at 
Panama. The canal at Panama is two-fifths completed already. The 
distance across the isthmus at that point is forty-six miles, as against 
one hundred and seventy-six miles at Nicaragua. It takes fourteen 
hours to go from ocean to ocean at Panama, and it takes forty-four 
hours at Nicaragua. 

"Therefore, in view of the fact that the Panama Canal is sure to be 
built — for no great enterprise was ever abandoned where so much money 
has been expended as has been expended at Panama — the Nicaragua 
Canal, our private canal, will never be used by the ships of the world. 
There is no occasion for using it. No vessel will cross at this point. 
A vessel will have to spend forty-four hours in crossing, when it can 
cross in fourteen hours at another place; and the commercial value of 
the canal will be absolutely destroyed if the other canal is completed. 

"Four thousand men are at work to-day on the Panama Canal, and 
only twenty-three miles more of that canal remain to be built. The ex- 
cavation for the rest of it is nearly done. Immense excavations have 
already been made along the twenty-three miles yet to be excavated. 
The money they are expending there is being expended with the most 
modern means of excavation and with great economy and great skill. 
Every single engineering problem has been settled. It has been deter- 
mined beyond question that it is entirely practicable to build an excellent 
canal at Panama. 

"The problems with regard to the Nicaragua Canal have not been 
settled. 

"Now, what is the proposition? To expend a vast sum of money to 
purchase an old concession which is valueless; to undertake to build a 
canal which we say shall be our canal. 

"The Suez Canal is owned by the nations of Europe. Its neutrality 
is guaranteed by all the nations of Europe, and if the vessels of two 
nations at war with each other choose to pass through it, they can do so 



ISTHMIAN CANAL QUESTIONS 401 

under the terms of that guaranty, only the vessel which first enters 
must first leave, and has twenty-four hours for departure before the 
vessel of the other nation at war with her can leave the canal, thus 
guaranteeing it against danger of conflict or destruction ; and the canal 
across the Isthmus of Panama must and will be guided, governed, con- 
trolled and guaranteed in the same way. 

"It is all nonsense to talk about our building, fortifying and owning 
a canal of our own so long as it is a commercial canal, but if we wish 
one simply through which to pass our war ships, through which none 
of the commerce of the world will go, if the canal is to be our canal, and 
you are to spend S400.000.000 or $500,000,000 upon it, you are under- 
taking to start a project without that intelligent consideration which it 
should receive." 

Senator Caffery said : 

"This canal ought to be built. It is the one great national necessity 
of the present time, joining the waters of the two oceans together by a 
great national highway. It will double the commercial power of the 
United States. It will cut by half the distances from our trade centers 
to the distant lands that we hope to supply with our manufactures and 
our products. It will reduce the land transportation rates of the entire 
United States by a considerable per cent. It will double the power of 
the American navy. It will greatly assist in the coast defense on both 
oceans. For every consideration I think this canal ought to be built. I 
think we should get about it just as speedily as possible. 

"Therefore, I shall vote for the bill, and, as I say, in the hope that 
out of the joint wisdom of the two houses will come a measure that will 
be the better, more practicable, than the one which is now pending here. 
I hope the measure when it becomes a law will provide for the construc- 
tion of the canal by the government of the United States as a govern- 
ment measure." 

Senator Teller said of the Nicaragua Canal that it was the merits of 
the company and not of the canal that were always discussed. There 



402 ISTHMIAN CANAL QUESTIONS 

were between three thousand and four thousand men now employed on 
the Panama Canal, the length of which was forty-six miles, and that 
of the shortest Nicaragua route, one hundred and seventy-five miles. 

"I know nothing about the Panama Canal except what I have seen 
in the public press, but it does seem to me before we determine that we 
will build the Nicaragua Canal we ought to determine whether it may 
not be to our interest, and whether it may not be money in our pockets 
to build the Panama Canal. Everybody can see that a canal which is 
only forty-six miles long must be in many respects very much more 
valuable than a canal which is one hundred and seventy-five miles long. 
Public opinion grows in favor of a canal." 

Senator Hanna of Ohio, June 5, 1902, opened the debate in the 
Senate in favor of constructing the isthmian canal on the Panama route. 
He spoke for an hour and a half in support of the Spooner substitute for 
the Hepburn bill. 

Mr. Hanna said that the time had come for the building of a canal. 
The American people wanted a canal, and he shared in their views as to 
the necessity for it. The question before the country was not whether 
there should be or should not be a canal, but on what route the canal 
should be built. A short time ago there was but one route in the minds 
of the people, the Nicaraguan route. An unexpected circumstance had 
altered the situation so that there was a choice of routes. 

The Panama Canal Company had made an offer to the United States 
which had made a tremendous change. It had put it in the power of the 
Government to build a canal from the Caribbean Sea to the Pacific Ocean 
along the best possible route — the route declared to be the best by the 
experts commissioned by the United States Government to study the 
question involved in the proper location of the canal. 

The commission never had had any other opinion than that the Pan- 
ama route was the best that could be selected. It so stated in the report, 
in which it recommended locating the canal on the Nicaraguan route. 
In that report it favored Nicaragua, not because it considered that the 



ISTHMIAN CANAL QUESTIONS 403 

better route, but because the Panama Canal Company demanded $109,- 
000,000 for its properties and franchises. 

Mr. Hanna showed by the testimony taken before the Committee on 
Interoceanic Canals that if the French offer to sell at $40,000,000 had 
been before the commission when it made its first report it would have 
recommended the Panama route at that time. 

Mr. Hanna promised to show before he was through on what grounds 
the Panama route was superior to the Nicaragua route. He mentioned 
briefly some of the reasons. 

It was evident from the manner in which Mr. Hanna proceeded in 
his remarks that he has considered the canal question with great care, 
and that he has viewed it as a business man. He insisted that the canal 
question was a business question, and not a sentimental affair. He came 
to the Senate equipped for its discussion as a business man would go into 
a meeting of Directors about to consider a work of large importance 
involving the expenditure of a vast sum of money. 

A part of his equipment was a series of maps drawn on a grand scale, 
showing the rival canal routes and portions of projected work along the 
Panama route. One of these maps was so large that it reached from the 
gallery railing to the Senate floor. 

It was noticeable that on one of the maps all the volcanoes were 
marked, the active volcanoes being indicated in red and the extinct in 
black. It was a very unusual thing for such diagrams to be displayed 
in the Senate, and they attracted much attention. 

Mr. Hanna said he had shared at first in the common belief that the 
Nicaragua route was the only one to be considered. The United States 
had been deterred from embarking on that project and in the light of 
events the fates seemed to him to have interfered to prevent a mistake. 
The Panama route was only forty-nine miles long, while that of Nica- 
ragua was 183 in length. 

"You build your canal," said he, "to provide for the passage of ships 
from ocean to ocean in the least possible time and at the least expense, 



404 ISTHMIAN CANAL QUESTIONS 

"We are to build this canal for the world," said he. "We are to build 
a canal for the commerce of the world, and we must take into account 
the business attracted to it from the world." 

By stubborn facts and by the findings of the best engineers in the 
country he had been compelled to change his views, which originally had 
been in favor of the Nicaragua route. 

Mr. Hanna referred to the seismic disturbances in the canal region, 
and suggested that those disturbances ought to cause the American Con- 
gress to pause and consider the suggested dangers seriously. He re- 
ferred to the maps arranged around the walls of the chamber, showing 
the number of active and inactive volcanoes in the canal region, demon- 
strating- that there were more volcanoes in the neighborhood of the Nica- 
ragua route than in that of the Panama route. He maintained that the 
cost of the Nicaragua Canal would be immensely greater in point of 
construction and operation than the Panama Canal,, and said he could 
demonstrate that the Nicaragua Canal could not be operated at night. 

Discussing the Spooner substitute, he denied that it was intended to 
delay. He explained that if the President were not satisfied with the 
Panama Canal Company's title he could proceed to build the canal by the 
Nicaragua route, provided that all conditions and concessions were satis- 
factory. By either route, he believed, the canal would be a power for the 
peace of the world. 

The role that Mr. Hanna took was that of business adviser to the 
Senate, and he made his appearance upon one of the biggest straight 
business propositions that has come before the Senate in a serious way in 
many years — that cf cutting a ship canal across the neck of land that 
separates the oceans between North and South America. For fifty years 
this question has been before the American Congress in an academic way. 
It is now before the Senate in a practical way, and if the Senate agrees 
to the Nicaragua Canal bill, already passed by the House at this session, 
that bill will, with the signature of the President, become a law. 

Mr. Hanna opposes the Nicaragua Canal as an impracticable dream 



ISTHMIAN CANAL QUESTIONS 405 

and supports the Panama project, which has been in charge of French 
dreamers for years, as really practicable. His speech, continued 
through parts of two days, was a straight business outline of the merits 
of the two routes. He did not talk of the commerce of the world or 
indulge in any of the word painting that has characterized former canal 
debates. He laid down before the Senate the plain business sense of the 
thing, making his deductions of business facts always in favor of the 
Panama route. 

He told the Senate, for instance, that it will cost $1,300,000 per year 
more to operate the Nicaragua Canal on account of its great locks than it 
will take to operate the Panama Canal, and he inquired if the Senate 
realized what that meant. The Senate did not know, so Mr. Hanna told 
it, that this additional operating expense against the Nicaragua route 
represented the interest, at Government rates, on $65,000,000. 

Then, the Nicaragua men have been talking for years that, on account 
of the lack of wind at Panama, it was impossible for sailing vessels to 
navigate there, whereas there are always strong trade winds at Nica- 
ragua. Mr. Hanna said that he, as a practical ship man, doubted whether 
it would be possible to handle a great steamship in a narrow canal with 
the high winds that prevail constantly at Nicaragua. The wind, he 
declared, would swerve the great steamships on to the banks of the canal, 
and tugs would need to be used to tow all ships through the ditch. Again, 
Mr. Hanna said that as a practical ship man he did not believe that it 
would be possible to operate the Nicaragua Canal at all in the night time, 
and he wanted to know if this was not a consideration worth thinking 
about in building a water way for the ocean traffic of the world. 

When Senator Hanna commenced talking there were seven or eight 
Senators in the chamber. Within fifteen minutes nearly every Senator 
who was in the city was in his place, and there he remained until the Ohio 
Senator had concluded his remarks upon the purely business side of this 
question. And the Senators who heard him say that he made a deep 



406 ISTHMIAN CANAL QUESTIONS 

impression upon those of their number who are groping in the dark on 
the whole business. 

The canal bill was taken up at 2 o'clock. Mr. Hanna, as a member 
of the Interoceanic Canal Committee, addressing the Senate in support 
of the Spooner amendment providing that the President shall have 
authority to determine upon the Panama route, provided he can get a 
clear title to the Panama Canal Company's concessions and property, 
otherwise he shall decide upon the Nicaragua route. 

The Senator said the American people having become accustomed to 
the rapid transit of the railroads, now demanded quicker transportation 
on the seas. 



CHAPTER XXVIII. 

WORLD'S WONDER WORK. 

Steel Roads to Bind All the Continents — Steamers Belt Around 
the Earth in the Tropics, Through Two Isthmian Canals 
and Mediterranean Seas — Isles of the Caribs' Relation to 
Canals — The Path of Commercial Progress That of the 
Trade Winds Following the War Flags. 

It was hurriedly said of the effect of the Caribbean volcanoes that 
so urgently called attention to the inner fires and endless forces of the 
earth, that the testimony of Mont Pelee and the Soufriere was against 
the Nicaragua Isthmian Canal as against the Panama competitor. It is 
well known, however, that when great oceans approach each other and 
are separated by a range of mountains, or where there are great rivers 
pouring enormous quantities of earth into seas, disturbing the earth's 
crust by loading it with a burden of weight that may not be measured 
or computed, there are the conditions of earthquakes; and there are 
peaks that promise fire and explosive eruptions. It is plain to all stu- 
dents of the shocks, and bursts of fire that disturb that which should be 
the firm and pacific surface of the earth, that there is no line of perfect 
safety between the great bulks of the Northern and Southern American 
continents, for the construction of a canal. It is acknowledged that the 
Nicaraguan Isthmian Canal survey contemplates a vast enterprise, upon 
which volcanic peaks look down, and that there can be no guarantee that 
the rugged old chimneys will not, sooner or later, be heard from again, 
through flush craters, and some of those precious pools that are so deco- 
rative, hollowed as they are upon the tops of ancient mountains alleged 
to be extinct volcanoes. It is fashionable for groups of islands to con- 
tain one of these. The Azores have an "extinct volcano." It is a huge 

407 



408 WORLD'S WONDEK WORK 

cup that holds a crystal lake, populous with gold fish. Some time those 
beautiful fish will be boiled suddenly. We have volcanoes along our 
Pacific coast. Occasional "shocks" are felt in San Francisco, and a fash- 
ion proves that the city is truly American in the character of its people. 
It is the greater the shocks, the higher they build their business houses, 
especially the newspaper offices, and it is bad form to remember between 
trembles that there ever were earthquakes in Pacific states. Perhaps we 
have had the quakes in Alaska that have never called attention to them- 
selves. Such as exist in Arizona we hear from. The blizzard and the 
cyclone - are much more, respected in the Rough Rider country than the 
common earthshake. There are deserts in southern California that seem 
to get heat from above and also from fires under the earth. The Cana- 
dian Rockies are so constantly contemplating their own beauties and sub- 
mitting to have their picturesque features taken by instantaneous pho- 
tography, that they are not noted as fidgety and subject to trembles. 
We are in possession of three archipelagoes in the Pacific Ocean, and 
each has an active volcano. The one situated on the Aleutian Islands 
never surprises anybody when it offers evidence that whatever may be 
its deficiencies it makes no claim to extinction. The Philippines have 
an abundant supply of volcanic soil and peaks, and a good deal of ground 
that is elevated, but the region most troubled by severe quakes is beside 
the sea, raid an important portion of Luzon, including the city of Manila, 
is but three to four feet above the level of the ocean ; and there are exten- 
sive marshes. The volcano that is a source of alarm to Manila, and has 
more than once rent the loftier buildings, especially the Cathedral, is 
situated thirty miles awav in a shallow lake, and is but eigdit hundred 
feet high. It is an awful aperture when the outbursts occur. When in 
"strenuous life" its -bellowings are dreadful. The population of Manila 
have been enlightened by the experiences of the present generation. The 
Cathedral was so shattered, tower cracked and partly thrown down, and 
superb stone pillars broken and overthrown twenty years ago that the 
wise decision was reached of replacing the stone columns with wood. 



WORLD'S WONDER WORK 409 

The "hard wooch" of the Philippines, there are twenty varieties, are dur- 
able and bea Llful, of exquisite color, firm as a rock, and take a polish 
that makes it effective as the finest and most carefully wrought marble. 
Stone is used in the first stories of residences, business houses and public 
buildings. In the second story, and above, the blocks for stately stair- 
ways, and service for which architects, other things being equal, prefer 
stone, wood is substituted, and the squared timber is massive and beauti- 
ful. Some time the woods from the Philippines will add the distinction 
of splendid decoration to the stairways of the most substantial and costly 
residences in distant cities, and that not for earthquake reasons. 

The most formidable volcano in the world, holding in the deep 
recesses of her solemn crater perpetually a pool of lava, constantly agi- 
tated, literally a lake of fire and brimstone, is Kilauea, on the Island of 
Hawaii, area 4.14 square miles, 2,650 acres, circumference 41,500 feet, 
or 7.85 miles. An eruption here consists in an excessive supply of the 
bubbling and bursting pool, until it breaks through the weaker places of 
the mountain walls, and flows a fiery river of molten rocks over steep 
places, until it tumbles with deep mutterings and clouds of steam into 
the ocean. 

The colonization of remote islands, or any lands not under cultivation 
and government by competent persons organized as a political people, 
has become of more importance to the great powers of earth than ever 
before, and in larger part is carried on peaceably. In earlier ages the 
swarms of Asia moved westward in military expeditions. Immigration 
took the form of masses of cavalry, nations on horseback, not always as 
destroyers, but as people, races seeking new lands. Perhaps the latest 
illustration of this method of immigration, though it was from south 
northward, was that of the Boers, who trekked, hitched their numerous 
oxen to their ponderous wagons, and moved not west as has been the 
rule of movers, but almost due north. They turned their faces toward 
the scenes of old Testament History, and were happy to believe with 
each day's drive they got nearer Jerusalem. They were bound for the 



410 WORLD'S WONDER WORK 

promised land, and a burning question was whether they could go in 
their wagons to the Holy City. 

Our American fathers were favored by finding fertile soil, forests 
that were full of game, rivers and bays stored with fish ; and there were 
not enough savages to make the price of land too high if paid for in 
blood, powder and steel, and no one bothered with them about the Decla- 
ration of Independence. The rifle and axe were the way-makers, and 
the words of command and cry of hope were "Westward ho !" Mr. Gree- 
ley was speaking the wisdom and expressing the instinct of the pioneers 
when he said, "Go west, young man," and he regarded it superfluous to 
say, "and take a young woman with you." Ohio gathered the first crop 
of "westward ho" immigrants after the revolutionary war. It was a 
labor movement, of course, but it was not slave labor. There were no 
slaves north of the Ohio. All the thirteen original colonies contributed 
to Ohio, and in Ohio there came a time and a song for moving on, and 
the song was, with variations, this substantially, "If good times you 
would enjoy you must move your family west to the State of Illinois." 
There was the land not burdened with forests that had to be chopped 
down and burned, and there was storage of fuel for centuries under- 
ground, easily found and handled with facility. 

Thomas Jefferson was one of the great men who did not become an 
immigrant, but he made up for that with the Lewis and Clark expedi- 
tion that prepared the way to the Pacific Ocean, and Thomas Benton 
moved west even to far Missouri and finding the center of the states 
in that state pointed his countrymen toward the setting sun, declaring, 
"There is the road to India." Daniel Boone and Henry Clay crossed 
the mountains and twice discovered Kentucky. Andrew Jackson was a 
pathfinder for himself from the Carolinas. He was born so near the 
boundary line between the two Carolinas that it was never quite estab- 
lished whether he was a baby, as he was a boy, in both of them. He was 
keen and heated for the land west of the Mississippi. Jefferson was a 
philosopher and statesman for making the Louisiana purchase, though 



WORLD'S WONDER WORK 411 

he had to take time to allow his mind to grow rapidly so as to find the 
power the country and the people who made it had, to interpret the Con- 
stitution, to appropriate the money at once and forever defend the Em- 
pires of Liberty for the expansion of the American nation over the majes- 
tic new possession that was bounded on the south by the Mexican Gulf, 
east by the Mississippi, and west to the Pacific Ocean. 

England, France and Spain, after fighting each other and sending 
many fleets and armies to the North American continent and the West 
Indies, sought when the Peace Commission assembled in Paris to draw 
the boundary lines of our freedom and independence, to divide four- 
fifths of the land of the continent and all the islands except those along 
the New England shore, among themselves. The dominating monarchial 
policy was that England should have the Ohio River for her southern 
boundary, Spain the northern line of the State of Tennessee for her 
northern boundary, and take all of Florida and a deep cut of Georgia 
as a sort of appendage of Cuba. The state, then the County of Ken- 
tucky, touched with territory in form like an extended fore-finger, that 
finger-tip only reaching the Mississippi River, while France and Spain 
had their own little disputes about all the land west of the great river. 
There was a party then residing on American soil, as at present there 
are persons, terrified at the very idea of our country becoming a Great 
One, and horrified at the thought of a Great West. However, we es- 
caped a policy of littleness under Washington, Adams, Jefferson, Madi- 
son, Monroe, Jackson and Polk, and we may include in this list all the 
Presidents since, with perhaps the exception of the one who rejected the 
Hawaiian Islands. 

The great and expanding nations of the earth, including in their 
greatest enlightenment, as to human experience, want more land for their 
people ; and it is a proverb among those who have studied the stories of 
republics that of all forms of government the republican the most re- 
quires for the perpetual support of the liberty of the people, a continuing 
abundance of land. 



412 WORLD'S WONDER WORK 

France, though her population is not rapidly increasing, has 
been well advised in fixing her grasp on North Africa, and she is vigi- 
lant in expanding for goo.d purposes her command over the Sahara Des- 
ert, which will some day, there is reason to believe, by canals, wells, of 
irrigation, by windmills and by artesian and other springs, possibly 
become a greater France. Russia has Siberia, and enormous spaces 
beside in Asia, and half of Europe for her foundation. She does not in 
order to find elbow-room necessarily add greatly to her territorial domin- 
ions just now, but she is with prescience preparing for the greater here- 
after by being herself comfortably established on four of the oceans, 
beginning with the (i) Pacific, including the (2) Arctic, and with the 
Arctic the Baltic opening into the North Sea; (3) the Mediterranean 
and the (4) Indian Ocean, with the Persian Gulf as an easy approach 
to Southern Asia. She really needs Constantinople, just as England 
requires Egypt. 

Germany is a nation more than any other abroad, with a call for col- 
onies, and the German Emperor knows the fact, and has the clear- 
sighted ambition, the physical and intellectual energy, the general and 
particular intelligence, with the executive aptitude and power to increase 
the German navy. 

If we have more islands anywhere than we want Germany will take 
all we have to spare and will not whine about our misfortune in "bag- 
ging" the Aleutian, the Hawaiian and the Philippine possessions. If we 
really feel incapable of governing the three archipelagoes of the Pacific 
just named — all comparatively recent acquisitions of ours — without sub- 
mitting to the wisdom of the savages of international insolence and 
treachery, imposition and hypocrisy, that made up the elements we have 
confronted and crushed in the Philippines; and making submission to 
Asiatic intrigue, the passion some of our people have for a small country, 
why, in that case we might please Japan by turning over to that Empire 
the Hawiian group. Russia would not hesitate to be obliging if we 
should offer to restore the Aleutian string of stored resources, the Aleu- 



WORLD'S WONDER WORK 413 

tian group that stretches along the southern coast of Siberia, and that 
makes for us a giants' causeway from Alaska to Japan. We could dis- 
pose of two archipelagoes at once if they troubled us and we need money. 
More than this, if contiguous territory should be the leading object of 
our policy of ambition we might give Mexico a chance for competition 
by swapping to her Mindanao, which is an island as large as the State 
of Indiana, for Lower California and Sonora. Mexico once through 
her Supreme Court accepted responsibilities for the government of the 
Philippines. 

If any great number of American citizens wish to enter upon the 
policy of getting rid of our islands of the sea as uncomfortable assets it 
might be well to organize and make proclamation of that public policy 
and see how the American people would take it. 

We do not want to make states out of islands far away in the oceans, 
but there is no reason why w r e should not hold territories permanently 
simply under our territorial system, and space cannot be occupied any 
better on this subject than in commending strongly the wise words the 
late President Harrison placed in his excellent book, "This Country of 
Ours," one of the last and best of his literary and political productions : 

Of the admission of territories into the Union, he says : 

"Out of this habit of dealing with the public domain has come the 
common thought that all territory that we acquire must, when sufficiently 
populous, be erected into States. But why may we not take account of 
the quality of the people as well as of their numbers, if future acquisi- 
tions should make it proper to do so ? A territorial form of government 
is not so inadequate that it might not serve for an indefinite time." 

This statement is solid and impregnable, and if we cannot make the 
discrimination needed we are getting into difficulty about ability to gov- 
ern ourselves, and should be very cautious what we undertake at home 
or abroad. Territorial government is the true prescription for the Phil- 
ippines, and the Filipinos would be well content if they were not told all 






414 WORLD'S WONDER WORK 

the time by some of our benevolent Belittlers that they were a dreadfully 
wronged people. 

The movements not of the few but of the many also around the 
world, across continents and oceans are swifter, surer, cheaper and safer, 
than ever before. The Atlantic is not as broad now, measured by time 
and money, as the journey from Mount Vernon to Philadelphia was 
when Washington was President. The greatness and glory of the 
United States are known to Europe, and the like knowledge covers Asia, 
so that we have to restrain the countless millions on the other side of the 
Pacific from pouring their unwelcome floods upon our shores. We wish 
them well, but we do not want too many of them. While we may build 
a Chinese wall against the overflow of the Chinese in our direction, we 
cannot, should not, must not, stop European immigration ! The Euro- 
pean races have the same rights to cross the Atlantic that they always 
had, but we must regulate the terms and conditions carefully and lib- 
erally. The Africans were brought over by force as a labor supply. The 
noble red men wouldn't work for us. Hence black slavery. The Euro- 
pean immigration question touches a great labor problem. 

The west world movement of the human race was never more active 
than now. The latest announcement of the numbers landing at our 
principal ports in one month was equal to the population of a flourishing 
city, being nearly one hundred thousand. Are we to try to turn back 
this tide? It is a golden stream of good workers, labor to take hold of 
great and rude problems of industry. The policy with which we should 
meet it has for its first item that of the expansion of territory, more land 
for the people, north, south, east and west, more resources in our mines 
and fields to be developed, more great roads to build, more colossal im- 
provements to be made. The manufacture of steel on a scale so huge 
as that of this time prepares us for possibilities of achievement that until 
a little while ago was absolutely impossible. 

The Russians are finishing their Siberian railroad. It was a wonder- 
ful undertaking, triumphantly carried out. The English will have a 



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HARBOR AT PORT SAID. ENTRANCE TO SUEZ CANAL. 



WORLD'S WONDER WORK 417 

railroad line right of way, the power, the labor, the capital, the confi- 
dence to build a road the theory of which is already familiar, and the 
enterprise even more important than that which Russia has finished. 
We speak of a steel road with some steamboat intervals at first, from the 
cape of South Africa to Cairo. From "Cape to Cairo" is a phrase of 
euphony. The business statement is "From the Cape of Good Hope to 
the mouth of the Nile." Stanley, the African explorer, may live to make 
a railroad journey not only north and south through Africa, but across 
that continent on a line largely traced by his own footsteps, and inci- 
dentally to receive ovations where he saved his life by shooting canni- 
bals with his elephant gun. 

The Emperor of Germany has practical use for the Turks, and can 
handle them for his progressive purposes, even if no other civilized 
emperor can do so ; and he is on the road to India by rail ! He was not 
losing an opportunity when he consented to have his royal friends of the 
Greeks thrashed by the Turks, and he did not lose any time when he 
visited Jerusalem and took note of the country and studied its oppor- 
tunities. 

We of the United States have two railroads to construct ; that is, we 
are to take the lead in doing it, find the money and the labor and the 
talent doubtless, and these two roads are to be world's wonders for a 
while. One is to be laid down from the most eligible point of our rail- 
road system and go as far north as we can go/and then "merger" with 
the Canadians and not decline European reinforcements and build a line 
to the Bering Straits Ferry, to join an extension of the Russo-Siberian 
line. This to be the all-rail, with the exception of one ferry (and there 
is no sure thing that the strait might not be bridged with steel) from 
New York to Paris. The other is a little further along, being a line 
from Alaska to Patagonia. 

Our greater and more immediate work is, however, the canal be- 
tween the west shore of our Mediterranean Sea and the eastern shore of 
the Pacific Ocean. That is the tropic way for the steamers round the 



4i8 WORLD'S WONDER WORK 

world, passing through the Isthmus of Suez and the Isthmus of Darieri. 
It seems the better thing to use the word Darien in this association be- 
cause it will serve for either Panama or Nicaragua, and we are justified 
in expanding and expounding the term a little. With our present pos- 
sessions and sense of dominion in the gulf and the sea that make up the 
American Mediterranean, we are of necessity profoundly interested; and 
the history of our hemisphere, if nothing else would point out that in- 
terest, in the group of islands extending between the Caribbean Sea 
and the Atlantic from Porto Rico to South America. 

The Isthmian Canal will be ours as an exploit. We are insisting 
upon having the supervision of it. We have the money and want to 
spend the money on it for the realization of an immense ambition and the 
augmentation of the grandeur of the freedom of the commerce on the 
world's greatest circuit as nigh the equator as practical, taking the short 
cut through the two Mediterraneans. On this line we hold commanding 
positions for the Indies east and west. 

It was in the waters from which the Caribbean Islands, some of 
which have volcanic peaks sometimes crowned with fire, that the war that 
settled the question of the primacy of the European powers in the Indies 
and on the oceans was settled. The decision of American primacy in 
American waters is already made by our peaceful expansion and gran- 
deur of growth and elevation of spirit and scope of power and fame, it 
will be confirmed by the leadership in peace, in honorable competition 
with other nations. The ends of the earth we shall have at command in 
our summer seas. The Isles of the Caribs will interest again in peace or 
war all the great nations and guard the isthmian interests with the union 
of the two Indies, testifying at last the correction of the visions of Co- 
lumbus, dreams that were not all dreams. Thus we shall have both the 
roads of both the Indies and transcontinental roads of steel, and the 
trans-isthmian canals that shall open as one the South Seas of the world 
around for the trade winds and the steamers. 

As the grander world works progress the gain of our continent and 



WORLD'S WONDER WORK 4i& 

country will be greater than that possible to any other though all the 
world shall be freely in it. The increase will be for us in population, 
wealth and reputation of just rewards for well doing in all walks and 
works. This is the surest and the strongest of attractions that America 
has. The mightier currents of trade between the two hemispheres and 
all the continents and all the islands of the seas, will flow forever by our 
southern front doors, and we shall go on prospering and to prosper. If 
the world is at Peace it is ours; if War comes, still the world is ours. 
We can unite our fleets of the three oceans upon which we look, and if 
we need to defend the canal we shall have Hawaii in position in the 
Pacific, and by that time our islands of that ocean will be joined to us 
by cables so that we can speak to our people wherever they are on the 
globe. On the east if aggression come, if the drift of war should be 
from the Atlantic side, it would be our privilege, opportunity and pur- 
pose, to meet the foe on the furthest American east line. Looking across 
the ocean from the American continent and in the European direction we 
should defend the world's commerce and our own dignity, with the 
Caribbean Islands for our frontier line. 



CHAPTER XXIX. 

VOLCANOES OF THE WORLD. 

The Lines of Fire Loop-Holes That Belt the Globe — Observa- 
tions by Leading Scientists — Chemical Action in Volcanic 
Eruptions — An Interesting Story Written in Science. 

The phenomena of volcanic action have been subjects of close study 
by scientists. Mungo Ponton, F. R. S. E., says in the XVIIth Chapter 
of his "American and West Indian Volcanoes :" 

"There are no volcanoes known to exist in any part of North 
America, except in the promontory of Alaska, in the Russian territories. 
Several of the West Indian islands, however, are partly, if not wholly, 
of volcanic origin; and some of them contain active volcanoes. The 
most remarkable of these is Le Soufrrier, in the island of St. Vincent. 
Its first recorded eruption was in 1718; but the most violent was in 1812, 
when nearly the whole island was desolated by the great streams of lava 
and vast quantities of ashes and stones which it threw out. These ashes 
were projected to so great a height into the atmosphere, that, notwith- 
standing the trade winds were blowing from Barbados to St. Vincent, 
they were carried to the former island and fell there. The distance to 
which they were wafted in this direction was about 200 miles. This 
eruption was preceded by a succession of disastrous earthquakes on the 
coasts of the mainland, about Caracas ; but these ended when the activity 
of the volcano began. 

"Guadaloupe also contains an active volcano-, from which there was 
an eruption in 1797. In Martinique there is a mountain named Pelee, 
which was in activity in August, 185 1. It threw out no lava, but great 
quantities of ashes and mud strongly impregnated with sulphur. 

420 



VOLCANOES OF THE WORLD 421 

"South America is famed for the great number and vast size of its 
volcanoes. These are found chiefly in the range of the Andes. The 
most remarkable among them are Cotopaxi, Tunguragua, Pichinca, An- 
tisana and Sangay. The first named is the highest volcano in the world, 
being upwards of 19,000 feet above the level of the sea. Its cone is re- 
markable for the regularity of its form; and, being covered with a 
uniform coating of perpetual snow, it has the appearance of having been 
turned in a lathe. The snow-line is sharply defined, and the regions un- 
derneath it are wooded. 

"The eruptions from this mountain are rare; but there are columns 
of vapor continually rising from the crater on the summit. The last 
great eruption of this volcano was in 1741, when the column of ashes 
and vapor from the crater is said to have risen to- a height of about 5,000 
feet above the cone. The mountain continued in a state of brisk activity 
for three years, during which immense streams of lava were thrown out, 
and spread over the adjacent plains. 

"The explosions from this volcano' when in action are tremendous, 
and large stones have been ejected from it to vast distances. One huge 
mass, estimated to weigh 200 tons, is said to have been projected in 1533 
to a distance of about ten miles from the crater. 

"Although now the highest volcano in the world, Cotopaxi could not 
always boast of this pre-eminence — at least, if any trust can be placed in 
native traditions. These relate that the mountain called Capac Urcu was 
once higher even than Chimborazo, but that, not long before the dis- 
covery of America by the Spaniards, there took place a series of dreadful 
eruptions, which lasted eight years, during which its cone was broken 
down, and the fragments now lie scattered over the adjacent plains. 
Similar occurrences elsewhere render this tradition by no means im- 
probable. 

"The most picturesque of the volcanoes of the Andes is Pichinca, of 
which much has been very interestingly written. It consists of several 



422 VOLCANOES OF THE WORLD 

cones, of which four are conspicuous — the most southerly, named Ruas, 
being that which contains the active crater. 

"It is on a plain formed on the flanks of this mountain that Quito 
is situated ; and to this dangerous neighborhood that beautiful city doubt- 
less owes its recent overthrow by a destructive earthquake. Baron Hum- 
boldt ascended to the crater of Pichinca, and nearly lost his life in the 
adventure. Having approached the edge, in order to obtain a' view of 
the lava boiling at the bottom of the abyss, he became enveloped in a 
dense fog, and nearly stepped upon the steep incline, which descends so 
rapidly, that had he once planted his foot on it, he would have slid into 
the glowing lake of fire beneath. 

"The eruptions from the South American volcanoes are quite as fre- 
quently of sulphurous mud as of lava. An eruption of this kind from 
Tunguragua has already been mentioned, in connection with the dis- 
astrous earthquake of Riobamba. Another similar took place from the 
volcano of Imbaburu, in 169 1. So great was the quantity of the small 
fish, previously described, which was on this occasion thrown out along 
with the mud, that a fever which ensued was attributed to their pesti- 
lential effluvia. In like manner, on the 19th of June, 1698, the cone of 
Carguairazo fell in, and a great eruption of mud containing dead fishes 
followed. 

"Antisana, however, is remarkable for the large streams of lava which 
it has poured forth. It had frequent fits of activity between 1590 and 
1 7 18, since which time it has been quiet. At the height of about 13,600 
feet above the sea-level is a plain, formerly the bed of a considerable lake, 
now reduced to very narrow limits. From the center of this plain rises 
the snowclad summit, containing a dome-like portion, connected by a 
group of jagged peaks with a truncated cone of eruption situated on the 
north side. The ejected lavas have formed numerous walls of basalt at 
the foot of the mountain, and there are also great beds of very spongy 
pumice. 

"It has been observed that small volcanoes are usually the most active; 



VOLCANOES OF THE WORLD 423 

and those of the Andes being generally of great height, their fits of 
activity are correspondingly rare. To this rule, however, Sangay is an 
exception. Although towering to the height of upwards of 18,000 feet, 
its activity has ever since 1728 been almost incessant. Its eruptions 
are accompanied by loud detonations, which are heard at great distances. 
In 1842 and 1845 ^s thunderings were heard at Payta, on the Peruvian 
coast. These explosions sometimes succeed each other with amazing 
rapidity; but so loose and incoherent are the materials composing the 
cone, that no concussion is felt. The fumes from the crater are very 
dense — sometimes gray, sometimes orange, in color. The solid sub- 
stances thrown out along with these fumes are cinders and dross, oc- 
casionally accompanied by round stones of about two feet in diameter. 
These either fall back again into' the crater, or alight on the edge of the 
cone, to which they impart an incandescent glow. On cooling, the 
ejected matters become quite black, so that they give the general surface 
of the cone a most dismal aspect. They are accumulated on the slope and 
all round the base of the cone in beds, which in some parts attain a thick- 
ness of between 300 and 400 feet." 

In Chapter XVI. he says : "Hawaii, or Owhybeem, the principal 
island of the Sandwich group, contains some of the most stupendous 
volcanoes in the world. Indeed, the whole island, which is 4,000' square 
miles in extent, may be regarded as of volcanic origin. It contains four 
volcanic mountains — Kohola, Haialalai, Mouna Kea and Mouna Loa. 
The two last named are the chief, the former being about 18,000' feet, the 
latter about 16,000 feet, above the sea level. Although their height is 
so vast, the ascent to their summits is so gradual, that their circumference 
at the base is enormous. The bulk of each of them is reckoned to- be equal 
to two and a half times that of Etna, Some of the streams of lava which 
have emanated from them are twenty-six miles in length by two miles 
in breadth. 

"Mouna Loa presents the curious feature of having two distinct and 
seemingly unconnected craters — one on the summit of the mountain, and 



424 VOLCANOES OF THE WORLD 

another on its planks, at a much lower level. This last is named 
Kirauea, or Kilauea, and is perhaps the most remarkable volcanic crater 
in the world. It was visited by Mr. Ellis, a missionary to those parts, 
who» has given an account of it in his missionary tour. The approach 
to it lies over a vast tract completely covered with old lava; and Mr. 
Ellis describes his visit to it in the following terms : 

" 'The tract of lava resembles in appearance an inland sea, bounded 
by distant mountains. Once it had certainly been in a fluid state, but 
appeared as if it had become suddenly petrified, or turned into a glassy 
stone, while its agitated billows were rolling to and fro. Not only were 
the large swells and hollows distinctly marked, but in many places the 
surface of those billows was covered by a smaller ripple, like that ob- 
served on the surface of the sea at the springing up of a breeze, or the 
passing currents of air, which produce what the sailors call a cat's paw. 

" 'About 2 P. M. the crater of Kirauea suddenly burst upon our 
view. We expected to have seen a mountain with a -broad base and 
rough indented sides, composed of loose slags or hardened streams of 
lava, and whose summit would have presented a rugged wall of scoria, 
forming the rim of a mighty caldron. But instead of this, we found 
ourselves on the edge of a steep precipice, with a vast plain before us, 
15 or 16 miles in circumference, and sunk from 200 to 400 feet below 
its original level. The surface of this plain was uneven, and strewed 
with huge stones and volcanic rocks, and in the center of it was the great 
crater, at the distance of a mile and a half from the place where we were 
standing. We walked on to the north end of the ridge, where, the 
precipice being less steep, a descent to the plain below seemed practicable. 
With all our care, we did not reach the bottom without several falls and 
slight bruises. After walking some distance over the sunken plain, which 
in several places sounded hollow under our feet, we at length came to the 
edge of the great crater, where a spectacle sublime, and even appalling, 
presented itself before us. 

" 'Immediately before us yawned an immense gulf, in the form of a 



VOLCANOES OF THE WORLD 425 

crescent, about two miles in length, from northeast to southwest ; nearly 
a mile in width, and apparently 800 feet deep. The bottom was covered 
with lava, and the southwestern and northern parts of it were one vast 
flood of burning matter, in a state of terrific ebullition, rolling to and 
fro its "fiery surges" and flaming billows. Fifty-one conical islands, of 
varied form and size, containing as many craters, rise either round the 
edge or from the surface of the burning lake; twenty-two constantly 
emitted columns of gray smoke, or pyramids of brilliant flame; and 
several of these at the same time vomited from their ignited mouths 
streams of lava, which rolled in blazing torrents down their black in- 
dented sides into the boiling mass below. 

" 'The existence of these conical craters led us to conclude that the 
boiling caldron of lava before us did not form the focus of the volcano ; 
that this mass of melted lava was comparatively shallow; and that the 
basin in which it was contained was separated by a stratum of solid 
matter from the great volcanic abyss, which constantly poured out its 
melted contents through these numerous craters into this upper reservoir. 
The sides of the gulf before us, although composed of different strata of 
ancient lava, were perpendicular for about 400 feet, and rose from a wide 
horizontal ledge of solid black lava of irregular breadth, but extending 
completely round. Beneath this ledge the sides sloped gradually towards 
the burning lake, which was as nearly as we could judge 300 or 400 feet 
lower. It was evident that the large crater had been recently filled with 
liquid lava up to this black ledge, and had, by some subterraneous canal, 
emptied itself into the sea, or under the low land on the shore. The gray, 
and in some places apparently calcined sides of the great crater before 
us — the fissures which intersected the surface of the plain on which we 
were standing — the long banks of sulphur on the opposite side of the 
abyss — the vigorous action of the numerous small craters on its borders — 
the dense columns of vapor and smoke that rose at the north and west 
end of the plain, together with the ridge of steep rocks by which it was 
surrounded, rising probably in some places 300 or 400 feet in perpem 



426 VOLCANOES OF THE WORLD 

dicular height, presented an immense volcanic panorama, the effect of 
which was greatly augmented by the constant roaring of the vast 
furnaces below.' 

"This great crater was also visited by Messrs. Dana and Wilkes of 
the United States exploring expedition, from whose drawing the pre- 
fixed woodcut is copied. They describe the light from the glowing lava 
to be so intense as to form rainbows on the passing rain clouds. The 
lava appears almost as liquid as water, and its surface is agitated by 
waves resembling those of the sea, and breaking, like them, upon the 
shore formed by the bordering terraces of solid lava. Sometimes they 
rise to the height of the second terrace and then fall back again in small 
cascades. Occasionally isolated jets of lava rise to the height of between 
sixty and seventy feet. The lava, thus tossed into the air, cools in its 
descent, and falls solidified on the surface of the molten lake, like pieces 
of broken ice. 

"Of the mountain Mouna Loa itself there was a tremendous eruption 
in 1840, and since then it has been frequently in action. There was, 
in January, 1843, an eruption from a crater at the height of 14,000 feet, 
not far below the summit. The lava stream, after descending with great 
rapidity the slope of the mountain, spread itself over the elevated plain 
between Mouna Loa, and Mouna Kea, traversing it to a distance of be- 
tween twenty and thirty miles. The current which flowed down the 
mountain side soon acquired the usual solid crust. But even after it had 
attained a thickness varying from fifty to one hundred feet, the liquid 
lava could, through the fissures in the crust, be seen rushing down like 
a torrent at a very rapid rate through this natural tunnel. 

"One peculiarity of this volcano is its tendency to throw out its lava 
in jets to an enormous height. The lava seems to be first forced up in 
the interior of the mountain nearly to the top of the great crater ; but in- 
stead of overflowing its brim, it opens a passage through the sides of 
the cone at a considerably lower elevation, so that the pressure of the 



VOLCANOES OF THE WORLD 427 

liquid in the interior forces it from the orifice in a jet, whose height is in 
proportion to that of the inner column. 

"This circumstance proves the absence of any internal communication 
between the crater proper to Mouna Loa and the lower crater of Kilauea, 
although the latter is situated on the flank of the same mountain — the 
distance between the two craters being about sixteen miles. For, were 
there any such communication, the rise of the lava in the vent of the 
higher crater would inevitably produce a jet in the lower. There is thus 
established a strong probability that the crater of Kilauea is on the sum- 
mit of what was once an independent mountain, entirely separated from 
Mouna Loa ; but that the intervening space has now been filled up by the 
lava and other ejections from the latter, so that the whole appears to be 
a continuous slope, and to form a single mountain. 

"The lava- jets thrown up from Mouna Loa during a great eruption 
in 1852 are estimated to have reached a height of 500 feet — those of 
some later eruptions double that height. The lava, as it ascends, is de- 
scribed as being white hot ; but in its descent it acquires a blood-red tint, 
and it comes down with a fearful noise. The quantity of lava ejected 
during some of the recent eruptions has been enormous. One stream is 
described as having traveled fifty miles, with an average breadth of three 
miles. A great stream, which burst forth from the side of the mountain 
in August, 1855, had in the beginning of July, 1856, reached a distance 
of sixty miles from its source — burning its way through the forests, and 
at that date still advancing at the rate of about a mile in a fortnight. In 
January, 1859, this volcano was again in vigorous action, throwing up 
intermitting jets of lava to the estimated height of 800 or 1,000 feet. 
From this great fiery fountain the lava flowed down in numerous 
streams, spreading over a width of five or six miles. One stream, prob- 
ably formed by the junction of several smaller, attained a height of from 
twenty to twenty-five feet, and a breadth of about an eighth of a mile. 
Great stones were also thrown up along with the jet of lava, and the 



428 VOLCANOES OF THE WORLD 

volume of smoke, composed probably of fine volcanic dust, is said to have 
risen to the height of ten thousand feet. 

"An eruption described as having been of still greater violence took 
place in 1865, characterized by similar phenomena, particularly the 
throwing up of jets of lava. This fiery fountain is said to have con- 
tinued to play without intermission for twenty days and nights, varying 
only as respects the height to which the jet arose, which is said to have 
ranged between 100 and 1,000 feet, the mean diameter of the jet being 
about 100 feet. This eruption was accompanied by explosions so loud 
as to have been heard at a distance of forty miles. A cone of about 300 
feet in height and about a mile in circumference was accumulated round 
the orifice whence the jet ascended. It was composed of solid matters 
ejected with the lava, and it continued to glow like a furnace, notwith- 
standing its exposure to the air. The current of lava on this occasion 
flowed to a distance of thirty-five miles, burning its way through the 
forests, and filling the air with smoke and flames from the ignited timber. 
The glare from the glowing lava and the burning trees together was dis- 
cernible by night at a distance of 200 miles from the island. 

''Several of the other islands in the Pacific, particularly the groups of 
the Friendly Islands and New Hebrides, contain active volcanoes; but 
little is known of them, except that they have been occasionally seen in 
a state of eruption by passing mariners. 

"Much further south, on the frozen shores of Victoria Land, in the 
Antarctic regions, Sir James Ross, in 1841, sailing in his discovery ships, 
the Erebus and Terror, discovered two great volcanic mountains, which 
he named after these two vessels. The prefixed woodcut taken from his 
sketch shows the appearance of Mount Erebus, which is continually 
covered, from top to bottom, with snow and glaciers 

"This mountain is about 12,000 feet high, and although the snow 
reaches to the very edge of the crater, there rise continually from the 
summit immense volumes of volcanic fumes, illuminated by the glare of 



VOLCANOES OF THE WORLD 420 

glowing lava beneath them. These vapors ascend to an estimated height 
of 2,200 feet above the top of the mountain. 

"Bounding on the phenomenon of the glacier imprisoned under lava 
on the sides of the cone of Mount Etna, Sir Charles Lyell has thrown out 
a conjecture that the cones of these two Antarctic volcanoes may possibly 
be composed of successive layers of ice, divided from each other by inter- 
vening layers of volcanic ashes and hardened lava. Considering that, in 
such a climate, each new layer of ashes and lava ejected by the mountain 
must of necessity become speedily covered with snow and ice, this con- 
jecture appears to be far from improbable." 

Also : ''Several of the Moluccas, or Spice Islands, are volcanic. In 
one of them, named Machian, a mountain was, during a violent eruption 
in 1646, rent from top to bottom, and has remained two distinct mount- 
ains ever since. In another of them named Sorea, which consists of little 
else than a large volcanic mountain, there was an eruption in 1693, dur- 
ing which the cone crumbled bit by bit into a vast crater, that was con- 
verted into a fiery lake, and occupied nearly half of the whole island. 
Successive portions of the mountain continued to fall into this glowing 
abyss, which was thus continually increased in its dimensions, and the 
whole population of the island were ultimately compelled to fly. 

''The earthquake which shook the islands of Amboyna and Banda, 
in November, 1835, was connected with an eruption from a volcano in the 
latter. In Sangir, an island immediately to the north of Celebes, there 
was a great eruption in March, 1856. It caused immense destruction of 
property and loss of life — upwards of 2,800- persons having perished. 
Besides great quantities of stones, ashes and other loose substances, the 
volcano threw out vast streams of lava; while from the sides of the 
mountain there burst forth great torrents of water, so that the fertile 
country around was desolated. A large portion from the side of the 
mountain fell into the x sea, leaving, in place of the former gentle slope, a 
sheer precipice 300 feet in height. 



430 VOLCANOES OF THE WORLD 

"The whole of the chain of islands running along the eastern coast 
of Asia is very volcanic. This chain comprehends the Philippine, the 
Japanese, the Kurile and the Aleutian groups. Very little, however, is 
known of the individual volcanoes or of their eruptions, although several 
of them have been casually mentioned by navigators. In the Japanese 
group, the most conspicuous volcano is that of Fousi Yama — having a 
height of upwards of 10,000 feet. Its cone is of a remarkably regular 
form, and it has on its summit a large oval crater. 

"According to the Japanese annals, this cone was raised about B. C. 
285 or 284, at the same time that the large tract of country in the province 
of O'omi was ingulfed, as mentioned in our earthquake annals. Another 
Japanese volcano-, named Wunzen, is said to have had its cone thrown 
down with loud explosions in 1793. A third, named Asama Yama, had 
a great eruption in 1783, and is still in a subdued state of activity. In 
one of the Aleutian group of islands, a volcano was observed by the crew 
of the Russian frigate Dwina to be in violent action during the month of 
June, 1856, in so much that a large extent of the surface of the sea was 
covered with pumice." 

In Chapter XIII. he says : "One of the most remarkable of the 
recorded eruptions of these volcanoes was that of Skaptar-Jokul, which 
began on the nth of June, 1783. It was preceded by a long series of 
earthquakes, which had become exceedingly violent immediately before 
the eruption. On the 8th, volcanic vapors were emitted from the summit 
of the mountain, and on the nth, immense torrents of lava began to be 
poured forth from numerous mouths. These torrents united to form a 
large stream, which, flowing down into the river Skapta, not only dried 
it up, but completely filled the vast gorge through which the river had 
held its course. This gorge 200 feet in breadth, and from 400 to 600 
feet in depth, the lava filled so entirely as to overflow to a considerable 
extent the fields on either side. On issuing from this ravine, the lava 
flowed into a deep lake which lay in the course of the river. Here it was 
arrested for a while; but it ultimately filled the bed of the lake alto- 



VOLCANOES OF THE WORLD 431 

gether — either drying up its waters, or chasing them before it into the 
lower part of the river's course. Still forced onwards by the accumula- 
tion of molten lava from behind, the stream resumed its advance, till it 
reached some ancient volcanic rocks which were full of caverns. Into 
these it entered, and where it could not eat its way by melting the old 
rock, it forced a passage by shivering the solid mass, and throwing its 
broken fragments into the air, to a height of 150 feet. 

"On the 1 8th of June, there was opened above the first mouth a 
second of large dimensions, whence there poured another immense tor- 
rent of lava, which flowed with great rapidity over the solidified surface 
of the first stream, and ultimately combined with it to form a more 
formidable main current. When this fresh stream reached the fiery 
lake, which had filled the lower portion of the valley of the Skapta, a 
portion of it was forced up the channel of that river, towards the foot 
of the hills whence it takes" its rise. After pursuing its course for several 
days, the main body of this stream reached the edge of a great waterfall 
called Stapafoss, which plunged into a deep abyss. Displacing the water, 
the lava here leaped over the precipice, and formed a great cataract of 
fire. After this, it filled the channel of the river, but extending itself 
in breadth far beyond it, until it reached the sea. 

"The 3rd of August brought fresh accessions to the flood of lava still 
pouring from the mountain. There being no room in the channel, now 
filled by the former stream, which had pursued a northwesterly course, 
the fresh lava was forced to take a new direction towards the southeast, 
where it entered the bed of another river with a barbaric name. Here it 
pursued a course similar to that which flowed through the channel of the 
Skapta — filling up the deep gorges, and then spreading itself in great 
fiery lakes over the plains. 

"The eruptions of lava from the mountain continued, with some short 
intervals, for two- years, and so enormous was the quantity poured forth 
during this period, that, according to a careful estimate which has been 
made, the whole together would form a mass equal to that of Mount 



m VOLCANOES OF THE WOELD 

Blanc. Of the two streams, the greater was 50, the less 40 miles in 
length. The Skapta branch attained on the plains a breadth varying 
from 12 to 15 miles — that of the other was only about half as much. 
Both currents had an average depth of about 100 feet; but in the deep 
gorges it was no less than 600 feet. Even as late as 1794, vapors con- 
tinued to rise from these great streams, and the water contained in the 
numerous fissures formed in their crust was hot." 

The devastation directly wrought by the lava-currents themselves was 
not the whole of the evils they brought upon unfortunate Iceland and its 
inhabitants. Partly owing to the sudden melting of the snows and 
glaciers of the mountain, partly owing to the stoppage of the river- 
courses, immense floods of water deluged the country in the neighbor- 
hood — destroying many villages and a large amount of agricultural and 
other property. Twenty villages were overwhelmed by the lava-currents ; 
while the ashes thrown out during the eruption covered the whole island, 
and the surface of the sea for miles around its shores. On several oc- 
casions the ashes were drifted by the winds over considerable parts of 
the European continent — obscuring the sun and giving the sky a gray 
and gloomy aspect. Out of the 50,000 persons who then inhabited Ice- 
land, 9,336 perished, together with 11,460 head of cattle, 190,480 sheep, 
and 28,000 horses. This dreadful destruction of life was caused partly 
by the direct action of the lava-currents, partly by the noxious vapors 
they emitted, partly by the floods of water, partly also by the destruction 
of the herbage produced by the ashes, and lastly in consequence of the 
desertion of the coasts by the fish, which formed a large portion of the 
food of the people. 

Mount Hecla has been the most frequent in its eruptions of any of 
the Icelandic volcanoes. Previous to 1845, there has been twenty-two 
recorded eruptions of this mountain, since the discovery of Iceland in the 
ninth century ; while from all the other volcanoes in the island there had 
been only twenty during the same period. Hecla has more than once 




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5TEAMER5 WAITINO AT KANTARA ) VIEW OF LANDINO ATPORT 5A1D 




imm to suez (anal 1 view of port said hardor 



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VIEWS ALONG THE SUEZ CANAL. 



VOLCANOES OF THE WORLD 435 

remained in activity for six years at a time — a circumstance that has ren- 
dered it the best known of the volcanoes of this region. \ 

After enjoying a long rest of seventy-nine years, this volcano burst 
again into violent activity in the beginning of September, 1845. The 
first inkling of this eruption was conveyed to the British Islands by a 
fall of volcanic ashes in the Orkneys, which occurred on the night of 
September 2d during a violent storm. This palpable hint was soon con- 
firmed by direct intelligence from Copenhagen. On the 1st of September 
a severe earthquake, followed the same night by fearful subterranean 
noises, alarmed the inhabitants and gave warning of what was to come. 
About noon the next day, with a dreadful crash, there were opened in the 
sides of the volcano two new mouths, whence two great streams of glow- 
ing lava were poured forth. They fortunately flowed down the northern 
and northwestern sides of the mountain, where the low grounds are mere 
barren heaths, affording a scanty pasture for a few sheep. These were 
driven before the fiery stream ; but several of them were burnt ere they 
could escape. The whole mountain was enveloped in cloud's of volcanic 
ashes and vapors. The rivers near the lava-currents became so hot as to 
kill the fish, and to be impassable even on horseback. 

About a fortnight later there was a fresh eruption of greater violence, 
which lasted twenty-two hours, and was accompanied by detonations so 
loud as to be heard over the whole island. Two new craters were formed, 
one on the southern, the other on the eastern slope of the cone. The lava 
issuing from these craters flowed to a distance of more than twenty-two 
miles. At about two miles from its source, the fiery stream was a mile 
wide, and from 40 to 50 feet deep. It destroyed a large extent of fine 
pasturage and much cattle. Nearly a month later, on the 12th of Oc- 
tober, a fresh flood of lava burst from the southern crater, and soon 
heaped a mass at the foot of the mountain from 40 to 60 feet in height, 
three great columns, of vapor, dust and ashes, rising. at the same time 
from the three new craters of the volcano. The mountain continued in 
a state of greater or less activity during most of the next year ; and even 



436 VOLCANOES OF THE WORLD 

as late as the month of October, after a brief pause, it began again with 
renewed vehemence. The volumes of dust, ashes and vapor, thrown up 
from the craters, and brightly illuminated by the glowing lava beneath, 
assumed the appearance of flames, and ascended to an immense height. 

Among the stones tossed out of the crater was one large mass of 
pumice weighing nearly half a ton, which was carried to* a distance of 
between four and five miles. The rivers were flooded by the melting of 
the ice and snows, which had accumulated on the mountain. The great- 
est mischief wrought by these successive eruptions was the destruction of 
the pasturages, which were for the most part covered with volcanic ashes. 
Even where left exposed, the herbage had acquired a poisonous taint, 
which proved fatal to the cattle, inducing among them a peculiar murrain. 
Fortunately, owing to the nature of the district through which the lava 
passed, there was on this occasion no loss of human life. 

The Icelandic volcanoes are remarkable for the electrical phenomena 
whkh they produce in the atmosphere. Violent thunder-storms, with 
showers of rain and hail, are frequent accompaniments of volcanic 
eruptions everywhere; but owing to the coldness and dryness of the air 
into which the vapors from the Icelandic volcanoes ascend, their con- 
densation is so sudden and violent that great quantities of electricity are 
developed. Thunder-storms accompanied by the most vivid lightnings 
are the result. Humboldt mentions in his "Cosmos," that, during an 
eruption of Katlagia, one of the southern Icelandic volcanoes, the light- 
ning from the cloud o>f volcanic vapor killed eleven horses and two men 
(Cosmos, i. 223). Great displays of the aurora borealis usually ac- 
company the volcanic eruptions of this island. 

John Milne, F. B. S. F. G. S., opens his splendid chapter on seismol- 
ogy with these impressive paragraphs : 

"In comparison with ourselves our world is large, its mountains and 
valleys are gigantic excrescences on its surface, whilst the elevations and 
depressions, representing continental elevations and ocean basins, form 



VOLCANOES OF THE WORLD 437 

irregularities the magnitude of which we can only appreciate by the aid 
of figures. 

"Directly, however, we compare these deviations from smoothness 
with the world itself, we are astonished at their insignificance. 

"On a model of our globe one hundred feet in diameter, mountains 
and oceans which take travelers many days to pass only appear as small 
ridges and gentle depressions, and we are disappointed by their small- 
ness. 

"If the diameter of the model is reduced to a foot, features which 
form the grandest scenery or basins forming the largest oceans may be 
represented by the almost imperceptible puckerings and depressions pro- 
duced on a film of varnish which had dried upon its surface. Ocean de- 
pressions and continental elevations would be practically invisible, and 
we might pass our hand round and round the model without noticing any 
irregularity. It is doubtful whether any molten sphere of metal like such 
a model would, after cooling, show less deviation from smoothness than 
those observed upon the surface of our earth. 

"If we therefore accept the idea that the excrescences upon the surface 
of our earth are in relation to its magnitude extremely slight, and add to 
this the idea that rocks in extended masses are capable of being bent and 
folded, rather than find difficulty in imagining that the surface irregulari- 
ties of our sphere are due to a layer of rocks which is unable to support its 
own weight, accommodating itself to a contracting nucleus, we have much 
greater difficulty in realizing why these irregularities have not been 
greater than we find them." 

We continue quotations, showing the earnest effort to account for the 
changes of the earth : 

"One assumption is that in the history of geography there was a 
period when the globe, whatever its configuration may have been, was 
nearly, if not completely, surrounded by water. 

"If the idea of extended tumefaction in the crust of such a globe is 
excluded as a physical possibility, any deformation in the crust unac- 



438 VOLCANOES OF THE WORLD 

companied by protrusion above the surface of the liquid envelope could 
not produce any' change in its level. Should, however, protrusion take 
place, as for example in the formation of a continental area, there would 
be a sinking in the level of the water, and the volume of the waters which 
would recede from the shore lines would be exactly equal to the volume 
of land which appeared above the surface. The newly created land sur- 
face would therefore owe its origin, first to the fact that it had been 
actually elevated, thereby increasing its distance from the center of the 
globe of which it formed a part, and, secondly, to the fact that the waters 
had actually receded to fill a depression and had decreased their average 
distance from the center. 

"The only escape from such a conclusion is the assumption that as 
continents have emerged from oceanic waters equal volumes of land have, 
at the same time, been subsiding beneath their surface." 

Again : "To gain some idea of the extent to which the retreat of: the 
ocean into growing oceanic depressions has accelerated the exposure of 
strata, we will suppose a stage in the earth's history, when it was an 
uncrumpled sphere covered by a deep ocean. With a mean oceanic depth 
of 15,000 feet, and a mean height of our continents of 1,000* feet, the 
total height of the continental protuberances is 16,000 feet, and if this 
16,000 feet of material could be spread over a sphere drawn through the 
present mean depth of the waters, such a layer would be 4,000 feet in 
thickness. The Rev. O. Fisher in a similar calculation takes his datum 
line through the greatest depth of the ocean, or about 9,000 feet lower 
than the one employed here. When this quantity is added to> the 4,000 
feet of my calculation, the results representing the dimensions of the 
uncrumpled sphere are in accordance. By such a process we obtain ap- 
proximate dimensions for a primitive lithosphere, and the present waters 
distributed over such a surface would have a depth of 11,250 feet. 

"After solidification of the crust we cannot imagine changes of any 
magnitude taking place in this crust due to its own contraction by further 
loss of heat. The only deformation it has suffered since it hardened has 



VOLCANOES OF THE WORLD 439 

chiefly been in consequence of accommodating itself to a shrinking 
nucleus." 

As to the causes of earthquakes the learned professor says : 
"With our present knowledge respecting changes which are in opera- 
tion in and beneath the crust on which we live, we have not to go far to 
find causes which, singly or in conjunction, are amply sufficient to shake 
the ground. The greatest difficulty which presents itself is to select 
from the causes which may possibly produce earthquakes those which 
play the most important part in the creation of seismic sensibility, and at 
the same time not to< confound them with minor influences which may 
cause a region in a state of seismic stress to suddenly collapse. In the 
present chapter there is no intention to try and deal with gravitational 
effects of the sun or moon, or with the effects of barometrical or other 
loads — the stresses due to' which may result in yieldings being more fre- 
quent at one season than at another — but only to refer to causes which 
bring about conditions to which earthquakes are more directly attributa- 
ble. 

'As an introduction to the modern views respecting the causes of 
earthquakes, it will be not without interest to recapitulate briefly the 
opinions which have been held in the past. In early times, earthquakes, 
displays of volcanic activity, the fossils buried in the rocks, and other 
things which to the savage have always been unintelligible, were by a few 
philosophers attributed to natural causes. In the middle ages the teach- 
ings respecting such phenomena were that their explanation was only 
to be found by an appeal to the supernatural, and it was not until the 
eighteenth century that the educated world, armed with the results of 
observation, returned to the doctrines of the ancients. Aristotle, Pliny, 
and other philosophers, whose writings testify to the fact that they had 
observed steam and other exhalations escaping from volcanic vents, held 
that earthquakes were due to the working of wind or imprisoned vapor 
beneath the earth's crust — a view which finds its parallel in the early 



440 VOLCANOES OF THE WORLD 

philosophy of the Chinese. Natural theories of this order are to be met 
with until late in the middle ages. Shakespeare in his 'Henry IV.' says : 

'Diseased nature oftentimes breaks forth 
In strange eruptions ; oft the teeming earth 
Is with a kind of colic pinch'd and vex'd 
By the imprisoning of unruly wind 
Within her womb; which, for enlargement striving, 
Shakes the old beldam earth, and topples down 
Steeples and moss-grown towers.' " 

The question of the weight of sin is thus discussed : 
"In a pamphlet about the earthquake at Palermo, in 1706, we read 
that 'the people seemed to be extremely humble and penitent, scourging 
themselves and doing penance,' and in conclusion there is the remark that 
'it was generally apprehended that this was a mark of God's vengeance 
for the immorality of the inhabitants.' The ideas then prevalent are 
summed up in a little poem called 'the Earthquake,' written in 1750. It 
runs as follows : 

'What pow'rful hand with force unknown, 
Can these repeated tremblings make? 
Or do th' imprison'd vapors groan ? 
Or do the shores with fabled Tridents shake? 
Ah, no ! the tread of impious feet, 
The conscious earth impatient bears ; 
And shudd'ring with the guilty weight, 
One common grave for her bad race prepares.' 

"The views set forth in the last four lines of this poem still find ex- 
pression from time to time. After the earthquake which in 1883 alarmed 
the inhabitants in Charleston, the negro preachers told their congrega- 
tions that the disturbance had visited that city in particular in conse- 
quence of its sins." 

The tracing of vast efforts to local causes is touched in these terms : 



VOLCANOES OF THE WOELD 441 

"To produce earthquakes which are felt over areas of five or ten thou- 
sand square miles, and which give rise to waves which may be recorded at 
any point upon our globe, it is difficult to imagine how the primary im- 
pulse could have originated at a volcanic focus. Volcanic explosions, 
as we see them, seem to result from the concentration of subterranean 
energy at a point, while to shake the whole surface of our globe it would 
appear necessary that the initial effort should be exerted on a surface 
very much larger than we can reasonably suppose to exist beneath a 
volcano. 

"A very much more serious objection to the volcanic origin of the 
majority of earthquakes is the fact that these disturbances are common in 
the Himalaya, Switzerland, and other non-volcanic regions. The de- 
structive earthquake in 1891 in Mino and Owari occurred in a region of 
metamorphic and stratified rocks. Again, an analysis of some ten thou- 
sand earthquake observations in Japan shows that there have been but 
comparatively few which had their origin near to the volcanoes in the 
country. The greater number of this series originated beneath the ocean 
or along the seaboard, and as they radiated inland they became more and 
more feeble, until, on reaching the backbone of the country, which is 
drilled by numerous volcanic vents, they were almost imperceptible. Be- 
yond this central range of mountains, earthquakes are only rarely 
experienced, and what is true for Japan seems to be generally true for 
the coasts of North and South America. 

"Throughout the world we find that seismic energy is most marked 
along the steeper flexures in the earth's crust, in localities where there is 
evidence of secular movement, and in mountains which are geologically 
new and where we have no reason for supposing that bradyseismic 
movements have yet ceased." 

The sinking of areas of the sea has become a matter of business to 
the cable companies. Prof. Milne states the result of observations : 

"Disturbances originating beneath the sea, which are much more 
numerous than those originating beneath the land, likewise emanate from 



442 VOLCANOES OF THE WOELD 

a region of strain. Mr. W. G. Forster, who has paid so much attention 
to the earthquakes of the Mediterranean, tells us that they have been 
accompanied by great subsidences of the sea bottom. After the Filiatra 
shock in 1886 it was found, while searching for a broken cable thirty 
miles off shore, that a depth of 900 fathoms existed where previously 
there had been only 700 fathoms, and that some four knots of the cable 
were covered by the 'landslip.' Mr. Forster gives several examples 
where cables have been broken at the time of earthquakes, and he also 
shows that soundings taken after shocks have been markedly different 
from those taken before the shocks, and this even in non-volcanic regions. 
'Another remarkable series of alterations in ocean depths are those 
of the Esmeralda River on the coast of Ecuador. Mr. M. H. Gray, of the 
telegraph works at Silvertown, tells me that here cables have frequently 
been broken, and during repairs soundings have been taken. From charts 
of these soundings it is seen that at places accurately fixed by bearings 
on the shore, depths have increased from 100 to nearly 200 fathoms. 
Although it is possible that cables might be interrupted and alterations 
produced in the configuration of a sea bottom as a result of volcanic 
action, it is usually supposed that they are due either to submarine land- 
slips or submarine seismic action accompanied by landslips and faulting." 
The Professor states a general truth of importance : 
"Wherever bending is taking place in the earth's crust we find earth- 
quakes, while if this process is going on in the vicinity of an ocean we 
find both earthquakes and volcanoes. Although a volcanic explosion or 
an abortive attempt to establish a volcanic orifice has often caused the 
ground to shake, the greater number of disturbances are either due to 
rock fracturing or to equilibrium adjustments of a subterranean quasi- 
rigid magma. The sudden eruption of a volcano may cause a local shak- 
ing or cause an area in seismic strain to yield. In this case the volcano is 
the parent of the earthquake. On the other hand, by the sudden shaking 
of the ground a vent which has been dormant for a long period of years 



VOLCANOES OF THE WORLD 443 

may have its statical equilibrium destroyed; and the relationship is 
reversed." 

One of the earthquake movements is the agitations of the seas noted 
as tidal waves. The authoritative statements that follow have impor- 
tance : 

"Our knowledge about the dimensions of earthquake waves is ex- 
tremely scanty and very imperfect. From what we see and feel we should 
judge the length of an earthquake wave to be measurable in tens of feet, 
rather in hundreds or thousands of feet, to which we are led by calcula- 
tions from the velocity of propagation. 

"For example, in the Gifu earthquake of 189 1 Mr. Omori, in Tokyo, 
obtained records of small vibrations with a period of one-twentieth of a 
second. The larger waves had a period of two seconds. The mean 
velocity of the disturbance between Gifu and Tokyo was about 8,000 
feet per second, which leads to the result that there were waves from 400 
to 16,000 feet in length. 

"By calibration of the seismographs at the university laboratory, it 
seems that the tilting they experienced at the time of the same earth- 
quake might have been produced by an angular deflexion of one-third of 
a degree. Assuming that this represented the maxium slopes of sym- 
metrically formed harmonic wave surfaces, and that the actual height of 
such waves was ten mm., as recorded by seismographs, then the length 
of the waves which were recorded may have been from eighteen to 
twenty feet. 

"We have here two results so hopelessly discrepant that all confidence 
in such determinations of wave lengths seems to be destroyed. 

"Waves which have traveled extremely long distances — as, for ex- 
ample, from Japan to Europe — have done so at rates varying between 
2 and 10 kms. per second. 

"The period of these waves as recorded at Rocca di Papa, near Rome, 
and at Pulkova, is, according to Dr. Adolf o Cancani, twenty-five seconds, 



444 VOLCANOES OF THE WORLD 

from which with a mean rate of 2.5 kms. (8,250 feet) per second, would 
give wave lengths of more than 50 kms. (thirty-one miles). 

"A sea wave caused by an earthquake traveled 8,778 miles from near 
Iquique to Japan at a rate of 512 feet per second, and its period near 
Japan was about twenty minutes. The length of such waves would be 
about 100 miles. The distance from crest to crest of waves propagated 
from Japan to San Francisco seems to have been a little over 200 miles." 

Prof. Russell says in his "Volcanoes of North America," published 
by the McMillan Company: 

"Of the gases and vapors emitted by volcanoes, it has been estimated 
that nine hundred and ninety-nine parts in a thousand consist of steam. 
Of the substances given off in a gaseous condition with the steam, the 
most abundant is usually sulphurous acid. Chlorine is also present, and 
gives origin to hydrochloric acid; it is the pungent fumes of this acid 
which frequently makes a near approach to the crater of Vesuvius im- 
practicable. Sulphuretted hydrogen is also emitted, and, being inflam- 
mable, sometimes burns with a bluish flame. With the exception of 
flames of burning hydrogen, noted below, this is nearly always about 
the only actual burning that accompanies volcanic eruptions, and is of 
decidedly minor importance as a part of the spectacle witnessed. The 
idea that a volcano is a 'burning mountain' originated from seeing the 
glow of molten lava which is frequently reflected on the clouds of steam 
above a crater. 

"Hydrogen has also been found in volcanic gases. From observations 
made by Siemens, at Vesuvius in 1878, as stated by Geikie, it was con- 
cluded that vast quantities of free hydrogen and of combustible com- 
pounds of that gas exist dissolved in the magma of the earth's interior, 
and that these rising and exploding in the funnels of volcanoes give rise 
to detonations and clouds of steam. When the source of the water which 
furnishes the steam of volcanoes is considered, it will be found that it is 
not necessary to consider that the free hydrogen given off by volcanoes 
is necessarily derived from the earth's interior^ as just stated, as it may 



VOLCANOES OF THE WORLD 445 

arise from the dissociation of descending surface water on coming in 
contact with ascending lavas. At the eruption of Santorin, in 1866, 
hydrogen was distinctly recognized by Fouque, who for the first time 
established the existence of true volcanic flames. These flames were 
again studied spectroscopically in the following year by Janssen, who 
found them to' be due principally to the combustion of free hydrogen, but 
with traces of chlorine, soda and copper. 

"Sodium chloride (common salt) is sometimes abundant, and in the 
case of Etna is said to occur in such quantities as to be of commercial 
importance. The whitening of the country about Vesuvius by salt pre- 
cipitated from the air during an eruption has already been noted. The 
common occurrences of salt in the vapors of volcanoes is one of the 
arguments sometimes advanced for the purpose of showing that eruptions 
are due to the access of sea-water to regions where rocks are highly 
heated. That salt may be derived from other sources, however, will be 
shown later. Ferric chloride is conspicuous about many volcanic vents, 
and coats the rocks with yellow and reddish incrustations that are fre- 
quently mistaken for sulphur. 

"Conseguina. — Of all the volcanoes on the North American con- 
tinent, none have attracted a greater share of attention than Conseguina. 
It is placed first among the volcanoes here especially considered, having 
'by merit been raised to that bad eminence,' on account of its fearful erup- 
tion in 1835. Previous to the explosion of Krakatoa in 1883, Conse- 
guina, together with Sumbawa on the island of Sumatra, served as the 
best example of volcanic explosion on record. 

"Conseguina is situated on the Pacific coast of Nicaragua, and forms 
the principal elevation of a peninsula which projects from the mainland 
towards the northwest and partially shuts off the Bay of Fonseca from 
the sea. The volcano is now extinct or dormant. From a distance it 
presents the appearance of a truncated cone, with an extreme elevation 
above the sea of a little less than four thousand feet. When more closely 



446 VOLCANOES OF THE WORLD 

examined the low mountain is found to contain a comparatively large 
crater-like depression in its summit. 

"Of the appearance of Conseguina previous to its now historic erup- 
tion in 1835, there seems to be no authentic record. At that time the 
summit of the mountain, which had been formed by material ejected dur- 
ing previous eruptions of a milder character, was literally blown away, 
and the rocks composing it reduced to fragments and distributed far and 
wide over the adjacent sea and land. By extending upward the sides 
of the truncated cone now remaining, an approximate restoration of the 
form of the original mountain may be made, which indicates that its 
height was in the neighborhood of 8,000 or 10,000 feet. This estimate, 
however, would be approximately correct only in case the mountain had 
been formed by comparatively mild explosive eruptions. It may have 
been truncated by violent explosions, previous to the one of which we 
have a record. 

"The appearance of Conseguina as seen from the sea is shown in the 
accompanying sketch, copied from Dollfus and Mont-Serrat. The crater 
within the truncated cone has a diameter of four miles and a depth below 
the highest point of its rim of three hundred feet. 

"Of the many accounts of the eruption of Conseguina that have been 
published, the most graphic as well as the most accurate, so far as I can 
judge, is one compiled by Squier, about fifteen years after the occurrence. 
This account reads as follows : 

"'On the morning of the 20th of January in that year (1835), 
several loud explosions were heard for a radius of a hundred leagues 
around this volcano, followed by the rising of an inky-black cloud above 
it, through which darted tongues of flame resembling lightning. This 
cloud gradually spread outward, obscuring the sun, and shedding over 
everything a yellow, sickly light, and at the same time depositing a fine 
sand, which rendered respiration difficult and painful. This continued 
for two days, the obscuration becoming more and more dense, the sand 
falling more thickly, and the explosions becoming louder and more fre- 



VOLCANOES OF THE WORLD 447 

quent. On the third day, the explosions attained their maximum, and the 
darkness became intense. Sand continued to fall, and the people deserted 
their houses, fearing the roofs might yield beneath the weight. This sand 
fell several inches deep at Leon, more than one hundred miles distant. 
It fell in Jamaica, Vera Cruz, and Santa Fe de Bogota, over an area of 
1,500 miles in diameter. The noise of the explosions was heard nearly 
as far, and the Superintendent of Belize, eight hundred miles distant, 
mustered his troops, under the impression that there was a naval action 
off the harbor. All nature seemed overawed; the birds deserted the air, 
and the wild beasts their fastnesses, crouching, terror-stricken and harm- 
less, in the dwellings of men. The people for a hundred leagues grouped, 
dumb with horror, amidst the thick darkness, bearing crosses on their 
shoulders and stones on their heads, in penitential abasement and dismay. 
Many believed the day of doom had come, and crowded to the tottering 
churches, where, in the pauses of the explosions, the voices of the priests 
were heard in solemn invocation to Heaven. The brightest lights were 
visible at the distance of a few feet; and to heighten the terror of the 
scene, occasional lightnings traversed the darkness, shedding a lurid glare 
over the earth. This continued for forty-three hours, and then gradually 
passed away. 

1 'For some leagues around the volcano, the sand and ashes had fallen 
to a depth of several feet. Of course, the operations of the volcano could 
only be known by the results. A crater had been opened, several miles 
in circumference (about twelve miles, according to Dollfus and Mont- 
Serrat), from which had flowed vast quantities of lava into the sea on 
one hand, and the Gulf of Fonseca on the other. The verdant sides of 
the mountain were now rough, burned and seamed, and covered with dis- 
rupted rocks and fields of lava. The quantity of matter ejected was in- 
credible in amount. I am informed by the captain of a vessel which 
passed along the coast a few days thereafter, that the sea for fifty leagues 
was covered with floating masses of pumice, and that he sailed for a 



448 VOLCANOES OF THE WORLD 

whole day through it without being able to distinguish, except here and 
there, an open space of water. 

" The appearance of this mountain is now desolate beyond descrip- 
tion. Not a trace of life" appears upon its parched sides. Here and there 
are openings emitting steam, small jets of smoke and sulphurous vapors, 
and in some places the ground is swampy from thermal springs. It is 
said that the discharge of ashes, sand, and lava was followed by a flow of 
water, and the story seems corroborated by the particular smoothness of 
some parts o>f the slope.' 

"The terror inspired in the minds of the people inhabiting the region 
about Conseguina calls to mind the graphic picture of the destruction of 
Pompeii during the eruption of Vesuvius, given by Bulwer. The erup- 
tions in each instance were of a similar character, the summit of a moun- 
tain in each case being blown to fragments. 

"The explosion as witnessed at the town of La Union on the north- 
west shore of the Bay of Fonseca, about forty miles distant from Conse- 
guina, has been described by Lieutenant-Colonel C. Manuel Romero, 
Commandant of the Post, from whose account the following has been 
compiled : 

"The dawn of the day on which the eruption began (January 20, 
1835) was serene, but at eight o'clock a dense black cloud was seen ris- 
ing toward the southeast, preceded by a rumbling noise. The cloud con- 
tinued to ascend until about ten o'clock, when it covered the sun and then 
began to spread toward the north and south ; it continued to spread until 
it covered the whole firmament, and at about eleven o'clock enveloped 
everything in the greatest darkness. The darkness was so intense that 
the nearest objects were imperceptible. During this spreading of the 
cloud it was rent by lightning flashes, accompanied by thunder. At four 
in the afternoon, the earth began to quake, and continued in a perpetual 
undulation, which gradually increased in force. Next came a shower 
of what is stated to have been 'phosphoric sand,' which lasted until eight 
in the evening, when a fine, heavy powder like flour began falling. 



VOLCANOES OF THE WORLD 44§ 

Lightning and thunder continued the whole night, and the following- 
day ( January 2 1 ) at eight minutes past three in the afternoon, an earth- 
quake shock of such violence occurred that men were thrown down.* Trie 
effects of the appalling scene on men and beasts were also noted.. The 
darkness lasted for forty-three hours. On the 226. it was less dark, 
although the sun was still invisible, and towards morning on the 23d 
tremendously loud thunderclaps were heard in succession, like the firing 
of the heaviest of artillery. This fresh occurrence was followed by an 
increase in the dust shower. 

"On the 25th, 26th and 27th there were frequent, although not vio- 
lent, earthquake shocks. The showers of dust lasted until the 27th. 
Galindo mentions other eruptions that occurred at the same time with 
the outburst of Conseguina, five of which continued for eight days. In 
conclusion he says : 'The volcanic energy seems to have operated on an 
extensive scale, and to have had vent in a great number of places. The 
country from Bogota, about latitude 4 30' N., longitude 74 - 14' W.-, 
throughout the whole isthmus, certainly as far as Belize (more than one 
thousand miles from the center of disturbance) was convulsed, or affected 
by the concussions.' 

"Following the great explosion just described came fearful earth- 
quakes along the Andes. The most disastrous of these was on February 
20th, but they continued at the rate of three or four a day up to March 
6th, and less frequently to March 17th. During one of these earthquakes 
the city of Conception, Chile, with a population of 25,000, was destroyed, 
only a single house remaining standing. 

"After the eruption of Conseguina, brilliant sunsets and sunrises, due 
to the quantity of fine particles blown high in the air and drifted by the 
wind to distant regions, were observed at widely separated localities. 

"The great eruption of Conseguina, 1835, just described, presented 
in many ways the phenomena that accompanied the explosion of Krakatoa 
in 1833. The latter eruption was more carefully studied and a far better 
report made concerning it than in the case of the former. A better con- 



450 VOLCANOES OF THE WORLD 

ceptiou of what took place at the explosion of Conseguina can be gath- 
ered from reading the account of the eruption of Krakatoa given on a 
previous page, in connection with the reports just cited than can be had 
from the imperfect and unscientific accounts which are alone available 
concerning the occurrence. 

"As will be seen when the theories advanced to explain volcanic 
eruptions are considered, the violent explosions that shook Central 
America at the time the summit of Conseguina was blown away were 
caused by an escape of steam, augmented perhaps by the ignition of gases. 
A large volume of water probably gained access to the liquid lava that 
rose on the conduit on the volcano, and the steam and gases generated 
blew the liquid lava and the enclosing rocks to fragments and showered 
them over the surrounding region." 



AUG -1 (94, 



